Key Details
- Title: Clone for UK DVD Release
- Genre: Science Fiction Drama, emotionally juxtaposed and philosophically layered.
- Director and Writer: Benedek Fliegauf
- Starring: Eva Green as Rebecca, Matt Smith as Tommy (Thomas).
- Duration: 107 minutes (roughly 1 hour and 47 minutes).
- Produced In: Germany, Hungary and France.
- Language: English.
- Notable Crew: Max Richter (score), Peter Szadmari (camera), Xavier Box (assoc. & primary editor).
Plot & Themes
The story begins with Eva Green as Rebecca narrating while she is pregnant which suggests she thinks the father is all she has ever wanted, even though he exists only in absence.
Reunion with Childhood & Death:
Rebecca and Tommy share an unbreakable bond as children until she moves to Japan. Rebecca and Tommy were able to reconnect during adulthood but disaster strikes and Tommy is killed in a tragic car accident.
The Clone Decision:
Rebecca supremely upset about his death decides to carry on a controversial act, which is to clone him and give birth to his child. She has to go through a painful, complex, and controversial process, which his mother does not support, in order to get DNA from her husband.
Umcomfortable relationships:
Rebecca is confused when she has to raise the young clone, whom she claims to be her son. The relationship is usually affectionate in the pre-teen years and Tommy starts crossing boundaries when he turns into an adult.
Societal Rejection & Identity Crisis:
As Tommy ages, he understands the reality of his beginnings. The community isolates him due to the fact that he is a clone, which complicates the relationship with Rebecca and Tommy.
Final Departure:
Beyond the emotional turmoil and the uneasy intimacy of the relationship, Rebecca is the first person that Tommy leaves. To her, he uses her first name instead of the title that is most appropriate which is “mother”. The framing of the film shows that Rebecca is pregnant again and this time, most likely with Tommy’s child.
Critical Reception & Analysis
Reception for the film “Womb” has been mixed. The visual and very unique concept of the film was praised, while others considered the pace very slow and the subject debated to be difficult. The rating viewers have of the film is around the same, with the majority of appreciation coming from those who enjoy art-house cinema.
What is agreed on universally is the gripping aesthetic of the film. The elegant, and powerful, yet simplistic acting of Eva Green with the supporting frame gives the character of Rebecca the sympathy and the unreasonable narrative that fulfills the rest of the film: the wonderful landscapes, and very minimalistic voice which heightens the gravity of the film.
Divided thematically, the film grapples with loss and cloning, and the borderlines of love and motherhood. It does not resolve moral, blind and soft to the audience, and reflects deeply discomfort that is completely deliberate.
Conclusion
Womb manages to smoothly intertwine the genre of Science Fiction with elegiac prose, all the while carrying an effortless sense of polemic. Movies that can do this are rare, and Womb stands out for its ability to provoke and linger. Its slowness and discomfort will alienate many, yet it is designed, not for the sensibilities of the masses, but to endure the sifting of perplexing questions around morality and lust that the film almost cheekily poses.
