Rotterdam 2025 Review: MEMOIR OF A SNAIL Gets You, Pacing Be Damned

Back in 2009 we were treated to one of the best films ever made about autism, and it was, surprise surprise, an animated puppet feature. That was Mary and Max, directed by Adam Elliot, who had previously won an Academy Award for his short Harvie Krumpet. A filmmaker with the storytelling ability to make you root for the outsider stuck in an uncaring environment, and with a gloomy visual eye to match Tim Burton's.

Well, he is back with a second feature film called Memoir of a Snail, and the good news is: it's more of the same. For many filmmakers that is also bad news, and while the film suffers a bit because of it, Adam Elliot's sense of humor allows him to get away with murder on that front.

At the start of Memoir of a Snail we see a woman called Grace Pudel at a particularly sad moment in her life: her dear old friend Pinky, an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's, is passing away. As Grace sits down in Pinky's garden, wallowing in self-pity, she starts telling us her life's history, and it is not a pretty story. As a child, after the death of her parents, Grace was separated from her twin brother Gilbert as both children were placed in different foster homes. As Grace recounts her and Gilbert's lives, a wide selection of disasters and sufferings get described in detail... and she also explains her obsession with snails.

If all this doesn't sound all that appetizing, it's because it really isn't. Early on we see Grace cry, and it's incredibly well-animated, the eyes believably filling with water. But we get to see that a lot in this film, over and over again. Grace is sad, Grace pines for her brother, Grace is sad, Grace pines for her brother... Yet all she does is wait and feel sorry for herself. And granted, there is much for her to feel grief about, but at the same time being the constant innocent victim makes her hopelessly passive. And no matter how well that is animated or how much tender loving care went into the background designs, Grace's attitude starts to grate.

The film's saving grace is not actually its dour protagonist Grace, nor its stellar animation, but the constant stream of caustic satire and adult jokes which are peppered throughout. The narrative itself may not be all that interesting, quite repetitive even, but the situations and side-steps are often hilarious, and Adam Elliot leaves no chance unused to criticize Australian laws and institutions. Child Welfare in particular gets a few vicious kicks. In contrast, the character of Grace's optimistic friend Pinky shines like a beacon in the film, and the flashbacks with her provide Memoir of a Snail with its most memorable moments, lewd and otherwise (seriously, a kiddie film this is not).

The audiences at the International Film Festival Rotterdam were very enamoured by the film and gave it a mean score of 4.65 out of 5, landing it in the sixth place of the audience award. Not bad for a film about the debilitating effects of endless self-pity...