‘Elemental’ is playing in Boston and suburban theaters.
By Bob Tremblay/For Boston Movie News
Want to introduce your children to the trials and tribulations of the immigrant experience? Sure you do. Come on, how many cute toy movies can the kids watch? OK, don’t answer that. For something mildly different, we have “Elemental.”
The movie actually spends more time on one of those forbidden romances out of the “Romeo and Juliet” playbook. Just don’t expect any poisons and stabbings at the end. This is a Pixar film.
When “Elemental” opens, we meet Bernie (voice of Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder Lumen (voice of Shila Ommi), who arrive from their native Fireland to Element City via its version of Ellis Island. This arrival comes complete with a bureaucrat who doesn’t understand their language and Anglicized their names. Does anything sound familiar here? The Lumens face prejudice, too, and reside in the city’s far from upscale surroundings.
The husband and wife open a convenience store called the Fireplace. It sells flaming-hot products that would give most people serious heartburn. As Pixar’s “Inside Out” personified emotions, “Elemental” personifies — you guessed it — elements, specifically fire, water, wind and earth. The Embers represent fire and look like flames. The couple soon have a daughter Ember (voice of Leah Lewis) whose dream is to eventually run the shop herself. When her father starts hacking a smoker’s cough, one assumes that will happen sooner than later. Not helping her case is her fiery — sorry — temper.
Complications arise when Wade Ripple (voice of Mamoudou Athie), a health inspector from the water clan, makes an awkward entrance through a pipe and discovers code violations in the store. He looks like a big blob of water. His report would close down the shop. Ember tries to prevent this from happening by first appealing to an earth element bureaucrat Fern Grounchwood (voice of Joe Pera) and then to Wade’s boss, Gail Cumulus (voice of Wendi McLendon-Covey), an air element.
Let’s just say things don’t go as planned, but during these troubles, Ember and Wade start to fall in love. While Wade’s upper-class family approves of the relationship, Bernie does not. Elements shouldn’t mix, don’t you know. Sound familiar? Not helping matters is that Wade could douse Ember and Ember could vaporize Wade when they, you know, get it on. Sex shouldn’t be that dangerous.
Anyway, “Elemental” does have its comic moments — I love the scene with Fern. Its real strength, however, lies in its imaginative visuals — they’re striking. If only the love story were more poignant. The treatment of its weightier issues such as xenophobia and interracial (inter-element?) relationships could have used some work, too. The tone is all over the place. Perhaps that explains three screenwriters: John Hoberg, Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh.
For director Peter Sohn, who hails from an immigrant family and is in an interracial marriage, the film is clearly personal. Give him props for making a film where assimilation comes to the forefront.
Of course, the target audience likely will get more pleasure from the creative and comical fire and water visuals. It’s a fun film to watch. Still, for a movie about elements in love, there should simply be more, well, chemistry. And why isn’t an Earth, Wind & Fire song on the soundtrack?
A short film precedes the feature: “Carl’s Date.” This would be the same Carl from “Up,” one of Pixar’s classic films. Sadly, it’s almost as if The Beatles were the opening act.
‘Elemental’
Rating: PG for some peril, thematic elements and brief language
Cast: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera
Director: Peter Sohn
Writers: John Hoberg & Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh
Running time: 103 minutes
Where to watch: In Boston and suburban theaters Friday
Grade: B
Bob Tremblay is the former film critic for the MetroWest Daily News. He is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics.
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