Mammal

This is a bleak tale...where two disparate, derelict souls come together...

There's much unsaid, more untold, hints at a backstory that - undeniably - compromise the central character...played with a subdued, steely strength by the ever-dependable Rachel Griffiths.

Rebecca Daly allows her audience to pre-judge the character in the here and now...for she abandoned her child. She moved on. Her child is dead. She moves on...slowly. The film is unnervingly slow - in a good way...time for quiet, intense contemplation? The slowness builds like a storm gathering in the dreariness of suburban Dublin...when you don't have all the facts...judgments come as fast and as erroneous as a lightning strike.

This ex-Mother tries to salvage the last vestiges of her maternal instinct...but, she knows as we see...she has not a sliver of maternity in her body. She is a hollow.

Yes...this is bleak.

The other decrepit soul is Joe - acutely played by an actor with a future...Barry Keoghan. A boy so twisted that manipulation is commonplace. Is he damaged? He certainly knows how to damage...hearts, minds, bodies and souls. For money, he 'poses' as a rent-boy...leads his John into a blind alley where he and his mates kick seven bells out of him. He is a grotesque...with a screaming vulnerability!

How do these characters fit together? They don't...but, for a brief moment in time their lives do. And then...time moves them on.

Some people nurture, some don't...some mammals eat their young, some will fight tooth and nail...and, some just carry on as if nothing really matters.

Mammal is a bleak, draining and strangely beautiful film...that matters.

Trailer...

Mammal (2016) - trailer from Studio Vermaas on Vimeo.