Cat looks into a puddle. Something has changed. The humans are gone—suddenly, it appears.
Soon, a tidal wave crashes through the area, Cat survives, barely, by climbing atop a tall nearby statue. But the water keeps rising. Just in the nick of time a small boat floats by that Cat hops onto.
Flow a wordless Latvian film that follows the adventures of the unnamed feline, can feel a bit inscrutable. It doesn’t answer the questions that usually help settle the audience in as the story is about to begin. You don’t know where you are, when you are, or what’s happened to create this world that feels similar but clearly not quite ours.
The cast of characters that survive together on the boat are quite eclectic. Cat and Golden Retriever are domestic. Capybarra is South American, Lemur is African, and Crane could be from almost anywhere else. There’s also a mythological sea creature.
If the description of Flow as a wordless Latvian film scares you off, this might not be the film for you. This movie is not one that can be enjoyed with a cell phone in one hand. It’s not the thoughtless entertainment we so often enjoy the movies for. It demands your full attention for its full 80-minute running time.
But if you give it that attention, this film will give back to you in spades. Its refusal to be placed makes it easier for the audience to connect to the metaphorical nature of the story.
Flow is a movie about friendship, light, survival, the natural man, community, prejudice, and more. Lemur is a collector, and when he arrives on the boat with the others he has a mirror that fascinates everyone. Flow is that thing that all great stories are: a mirror.
The sound design of this film is exceptional. All of the animal noises are recorded from animals. And the symphony of sounds of the rushing waters really brings the film to life.
With the waters ever rising, the group of animals orient their boat to the top of the highest peak. The film is grounded by the realistic animation and characterization of the animals. These animals act like animals. Except that once they have developed a sense of sacrifice and community with one another. Then, only occasionally, they are able to rise above being mere animals. When I watched Crane protect Cat or Golden Retriever leave his pack to rescue Capybara, it made me think of the relationships that have inspired me to do more and strive higher.
Many of those who have seen this film have commented on its gorgeous animation. There is certainly a beauty to it. It appears to invoke cel-shading, a technique to create 2-D style images in 3-D environments, and painterly realism. Taken as a whole nearly every frame was breathtaking. The way the camera almost always found and played with the light told a story on its own. But if I focused on the details, the technique often looked like the film was buffering slowly.
Still, that’s a small complaint. The movie feels like your artsy friend trying to do something really deep. It feels a bit awkward at first, but in the end, and a bit to your surprise, they really pull it off, and you’re transformed by the experience.
I’ve been around long enough to know this is the kind of film that will resonate much more with critics than with audiences. But despite its meditative nature, this is one kids will be engaged by. Its brisk storytelling means there is almost always something happening. From my perspective, it includes nothing objectionable for kids of any age, outside some mild suspense that I think even the average four-year-old should do fine with.
If you were to choose to watch this with your kids, some questions you might ask include: How did the animals on the boat help one another? What risk were they willing to take to help? Why were the animals going toward the light? What is the light in your own life? How did Cat become better as a result of the relationships with the other animals?
Four out of five stars. Flow comes out in regional theaters December 6, 2024.
