[yasr_overall_rating]
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa’s words will incite rebellion.
Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 collection of philosophical, poetic essays “The Prophet,” has since become a massive international hit. Translated into 40 languages, with millions of copies sold, the book’s sweeping themes of love, freedom, sorrow, religion, death – among many other deep, esoteric subjects – resonated with folks worldwide. Roger Allers’ animated adaptation took a risky approach and split the narrative into segments, each illustrated by a top contemporary artist, such as Bill Plympton (“Idiots and Angels”), Nina Paley (“Sita Sings the Blues”) and Tomm Moore (“The Secret of Kells”), all strung together – or “directed” – by the helmer of “Open Season” and “The Lion King.” For the most part, the effort pays off, though the film does lack coherence.
Salma Hayek’s passion project – she is the lead producer, who got Liam Neeson for voicing the protagonist, came up with the idea of having separate vignettes, and voices what I assume is a Lebanese character in a blatantly Spanish accent – begins with Almitra, a young, fatherless, troublemaker girl who hasn’t spoken a word since her father’s death. She upsets and alienates her village with pranks and general trouble-making, and her mom, Kamila (yep, Salma Hayek), has to defend her daughter against the frankly justified anger of the villagers. They live in the home of an imprisoned poet Mustafa (a highly elegiac Liam Neeson), where Kamila serves as his maid.
Mustafa tells Almitra he’s not really a prisoner, and that he’s “flown away many times” (followed by a short but beautiful sequence about imagination’s limitlessness, and how “we are spirits, free as the wind.”) Yet now he’s being exiled, and on their journey to a doomed ship, escorted by guards, the trio encounters a legion of thankful villagers. Mustafa is a Christ-like figure, whose poetic readings are visualized in the animated sequences, ranging from Monet-like painterly impressionist overtures to briefly outlined sketches, dazzling in their simplicity. Almitra discovers that the guards have a plan brewing, which involves having Mustafa renounce all of his creations, and she attempts to stop them. The film ends on a profound note – by far “The Prophet”’s high point.
It’s genuinely refreshing to see hand-drawn animation; the warmth and artistry is palpable – but while it’s a joy to behold for the most part, the sketches do vary in quality, one particularly psychedelic piece resembling a trippy screen-saver. The sketch-to-sketch narrative is both exciting, as one never knows what will appear on the screen next, and off-putting, giving the film an episodic structure that doesn’t flow as well as it should. The main plot, connecting Mustafa’s cabalistic stories together, is jarringly straightforward and sophomoric.
Which brings me to the film’s big flaw: its elegant, poetic, mythical, and at times passionately political narrative gets regularly interrupted by moments of juvenile humor, apparently to appease the young ‘uns’, but the flow stumbles, hard. For example, there’s silly “guard-chasing-bird” slapstick, or a character proclaiming, for no reason: “I’ll stick with the baklava.” (Worst punchline of 2015?) Maybe some things got lost in translation, as it’s an international effort; the United States, France, Lebanon, Quatar and Canada were all involved in the film’s production.
But does that excuse the film’s dearth of tonal consistency? Passages, such as “For you can no longer be free, when you think of freedom as a goal”, or “Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping, for only the hand of life can contain your hearts” are lovely sentiments… that will totally go over the little heads of children amused by poop jokes. I’m all about not underestimating the kids’ intelligence, and parents pausing the film and explaining the meaning behind each sequence, but then why bore those parents with frequent immature shenanigans and bad dialogue? In addition, while in the Gibran’s book the authority’s intentions – to suppress artistic expression with despotism – were clearly defined, many kids may be left confounded as to why Mustafa’s harmless teachings are deemed so evil by those mean guards. Say what you want about Pixar, but they do the fine balancing act of “accessible to both kids and their parents on multiple levels” better than anyone else, as proven by the recent, brilliant “Inside Out.”
The film could have done without the musical interludes, which sound like diluted, Disney-like numbers, barely saved by the animation driving them. The “Children Are Not Your Children” song is particularly laughable. Again, it’s like the filmmakers didn’t trust their instincts to stick to the darkness of the source material; imagine “Persepolis” with Looney Tunes interludes, and a Phil Collins soundtrack.
I realize I may have been a bit harsh on the film. A lot of care and attention went into this ambitious project, and while it’s not quite the masterpiece it wanted to be, and has trouble defining its audience, it’s a gorgeous story, with inspired passages, and certainly better than most of the computer-generated animation coming out of the Dream Factory these days. Similar in structure to the sketch-like narratives of “Fantasia” or “Fear(s) of the Dark”, it’s best enjoyed as a visual poem, a feast for the eyes that gets the imagination buzzin’… and driftin’ a little bit.
In theaters including the Angelika Dallas August 21st
