Overview
En route to the annual G7 summit, the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies get lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis.
Leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies are gathered for the G7 summit as an unspecified global crisis looms. Struggling to devise a statement response to the crisis, things escalate for the group when all the staff at the isolated venue vanish, and the group get lost in the woods, with strange shadowy figures looming in the misty darkness who pose a threat. Oh, there is also the matter of a giant brain to contend with, in this satirical comedy horror from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Gallen Johnson.
The film gets off to a strong, political satire charged start, as the leaders of the world sit around talking. The approaches of the different leaders is lent some wit, with Cate Blanchett’s German chancellor being clearly inspired by Merkel, Charles Dance’s US President lazily engaging with the others as the leader of the most powerful country on the planet, and Roy Dupuis as the romanticised Prime Minister of Canada, who appears to have the hearts of the female leaders, but doesn’t really know what his place in the world is. Throw in Nikki Amuka-Bird as a fiery and determined UK Prime Minister, and Rolando Ravello as the awkward Italian Prime Minister who seems to not understand what they are all supposed to be doing, and the mix of stars alone is enough to entice. Once the weirdness all starts, and the film turns into a ‘lost in the woods’ comedy horror, the whole thing gets a little muddled and confusing, but manages to keep you on board thanks to that core central cast.
There’s some wonderful touches of humour throughout, some subtle, some crude, and some wonderfully insightful, and the whole thing carries along with a decent pace. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t find myself so bewildered by moments of the film that I broke away from it at a couple of points. However, something pretty swiftly brought me back in, either with a satirical moment, or a pure comedy moment (when they try to communicate via text with a stranded girl who may or may not be an AI pedophile trap device for example).
Rumours is a curious film that isn’t as strong as Maddin’s other works, but still has something intriguing to say about the state of world politics, only with exploding zombies, giant brains, and AI traps. Not entirely a success, it does come to a wonderfully satirical close, and will certainly sit with you for a while as you decipher exactly what the film was saying – even if it might not have been saying much.