SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY
| Director | Adam Elliot |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Year | 2024 |
Memoir of a Snail is a stop motion tragicomedy of unusual emotional force, shaped by the singular sensibility of Australian animator Adam Elliot. Known for his Oscar winning short Harvie Krumpet and for features that blend melancholy with mordant humour, Elliot has long been drawn to stories of outsiders and misfits. His new film is his most ambitious yet, a work with a strong personal strain that combines the simplicity of his handmade aesthetic with a narrative steeped in loneliness, eccentricity and the bruises of childhood.
The film centres on Grace Pudel, voiced with weary tenderness by Sarah Snook. When we first meet her, she is a middle aged recluse living in a cluttered home filled with hoarded objects and snail memorabilia. She is desperately lonely, but the film quickly reveals that she was not always this way. Elliot takes us back to her childhood, a period marked by misfortune and separation. Grace is a twin, deeply attached to her brother Gilbert, played by Kodi Smit McPhee. As a child, Gilbert is a pyromaniac, though his fascination with fire stems from a desire to become a fire breathing street performer in Paris, inspired by their father, who worked as a stop motion animator.
Their early life is shaped by loss. Grace’s mother dies in childbirth. Their father, depressive and alcoholic, later dies in his sleep from sleep apnoea. Orphaned, the twins are separated by a callous state system and sent to opposite sides of Australia. Gilbert is placed with a rigidly religious foster family who run a fruit business and insist on worshipping the baby Jesus. Grace is sent to an upbeat Canberra couple obsessed with self help books and swinging, who leave her alone at night while they attend key parties. The film’s humour is dry and often bleak, but it is never cruel. Elliot’s affection for his characters is unmistakable.
Grace’s only real friend during this period is Pinky, an eccentric older woman voiced by Jacki Weaver. Pinky smells of ginger and second-hand shops, dresses in flamboyant colours and oversized glasses, and carries herself with the indomitable spirit of someone who has survived more than she lets on. She becomes the central figure in Grace’s emotional life, offering companionship and a sense of possibility. Pinky’s presence recalls the kind of outsider mentors found in films about unconventional families, such as Harvie Krumpet or Mary and Max, though Elliot’s tone here is gentler and more introspective.
Memoir of a Snail is animated in Elliot’s signature style, with a glum colour palette that evokes peeling wallpaper, black mould and the residue of crushed dreams. Stop motion, often associated with the cheerful creations of Aardman, proves here to be a medium capable of expressing darker emotional textures. Elliot joins filmmakers like Jan Svankmajer and the creators of Coraline in using the form to explore themes of isolation and psychological unease. Yet the film remains accessible, even family friendly in its surface charm, while carrying an undercurrent of adult pain.
The narrative is structured as a memoir, with Grace recounting her life in a tone that blends resignation with flashes of humour. Her bond with her pet snails becomes a metaphor for her desire to retreat from the world, to crawl into a shell when life becomes too overwhelming. The film’s title captures both her fragility and her resilience. Elliot’s storytelling is marked by an ingenuousness that belies the intensity of the emotions at play. There are hints that the film draws on personal experiences, and the surprising narrative pivot near the end adds a layer of poignancy that deepens the entire work.
Despite its catalogue of misfortune, Memoir of a Snail is not a despairing film. Elliot’s gift lies in finding warmth amid bleakness, humour amid sorrow, and humanity in characters who feel overlooked by the world. The film’s tragicomic tone, its careful attention to detail and its compassion for damaged souls make it a distinctive and affecting piece of animation. It speaks quietly but with clarity, offering a reminder that even the most withdrawn lives contain stories worth telling.
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