movieminis

Mute, co-written and directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft), is about a man named Leo (Alexander Skarsgård), who happens to be Amish and mute, trying to find his missing girlfriend (Seyneb Saleh) in a futuristic Germany. He has to fight gangsters, find clues that she left behind and put up with abuse for being unable to speak. An Amish mute? Fighting bad guys?! Having premarital sex?! The Future?! What sounds like a movie that’s at least mildly interesting turns out to be a complete bore, much like the slew of other Netflix originals over the past few months.

Paul Rudd plays Cactus, an American surgeon working for these gangsters, and is probably the most entertaining part of the entire movie. How he ended up in Germany taking bullets out of gangsters is a mystery, but I guess it doesn’t matter. Cactus is looking for a way back to America along with his daughter, and he’ll do anything to obtain that. It’s fun to see Paul Rudd playing a villain, a departure from his typical roles, but he deserves a much better movie around him.

If you’re wondering, “Wow, I wonder if Cactus has anything to do with Leo’s missing girlfriend,” you would be on the right track! There’s really nothing shocking about this movie, although I must admit I was taken aback by how advanced the sex dolls of the future are.

As much as I hate to say this about a movie Paul Rudd is in, Mute is one to steer clear of. It’s boring, its vision of the future is cliché and Cactus’s best friend is a pedophile. Watch at risk of wasting two hours of your life.

Grade: 4.5/10

 

Mute was released on February 23, 2018 and is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

Featured image courtesy of Netflix.