Minamata is a heartfelt contemplative real-life social drama which although plays beat-by-beat to the little man versus the corporation story formula, is elevated by the charming performances of Johnny Depp and its supporting cast.
Eugene Smith, the photojournalist for Life Magazine, travels to Minamata, Japan to cover the local cases of severe mercury poisoning caused by the Chisso Corporation dumping industrial wastewater into the ocean.
This is Johnny Depp's best performance in a long while. When it comes to Depp's roles, we tend to think of his larger-than-life wacky characters. There is a different electricity when he portrays real-life figures, like in Donnie Brasco, Finding Neverland, or The Libertine, that is often overlooked due to a lack of his signature character quirks. The task just seems simpler as Depp just focuses on being truthful and responsible to the real-life person.
His portrayal of Eugene Smith seems like a distant cousin of Hunter S. Thompson, a cursed truth-speaker who constantly needs to self-medicate through drugs and joyous self-destruction. Despite the frizzy hair and a salt-and-pepper chin curtain beard, this is the least costumed he's been in a while and it is winning.
It's surprisingly funny too as Depp injects gallows humor into his scenes as Eugene Smith is someone who has hit rock bottom and is reveling in how much he doesn't care anymore.
We don't know what the real Eugene Smith acted like, but I'd bet good money that the ingredients for this characterization were a combination of secondary source accounts of Eugene Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Johnny Depp himself. What Depp was emoting felt real and raw like he was expressing something he wanted to say at this moment through his part.
Hiroyuki Sanada shines in a supportive part as a lead protester against the Chisso Corporation. Sanada just has one of those charismatic faces that makes the audience root for whatever his character is crusading for onscreen, whether that's hating Tom Cruise, sword fighting with Hawkeye, or shooting a rope-dart at Sub-Zero.
Director Andrew Levitas takes his time for the audience to sensitively familiarize with the various victims of Minamata and their families through the eyes of Eugene Smith. The cinematography uses the gorgeous Japanese backdrop for the audience to contemplate the severity of the situation.
Slowly, you end up caring for the Minamata victims and their families. Minamata disease is quite a nightmare. I was biting my nails every time someone ate raw fish or sipped tea. I was even wondering what the real-life Eugene Smith, who stayed in Minamata for three-and-a-half years off of an original three-month assignment, was eating and drinking. The film's social message played twice as powerful as it eerily mirrored the nuclear disaster in Fukushima now.
The middle of Minamata does sag just before the final act, almost like an instructor forgetting to set the timer in a free trial meditation class. I was suddenly woken up from a daze and the end wrapped up a tad too quickly.
Steven Soderberg's Erin Brockovich, a movie similar in plot and theme, is comparatively better structured in terms of plot, but I enjoyed the meditative daze Minamata brought me in.
There's a growing movie-going trend where the audience will only go to the theater to see big-budgeted blockbusters with special effects and slow-paced arthouse cinema is something that can be streamed later at home. That is not always the case. Cinema has a lot more to offer than that. After a year-long hiatus of not going to the cinema, watching Minamata retaught me that.
Eugene Smith, the photojournalist for Life Magazine, travels to Minamata, Japan to cover the local cases of severe mercury poisoning caused by the Chisso Corporation dumping industrial wastewater into the ocean.
This is Johnny Depp's best performance in a long while. When it comes to Depp's roles, we tend to think of his larger-than-life wacky characters. There is a different electricity when he portrays real-life figures, like in Donnie Brasco, Finding Neverland, or The Libertine, that is often overlooked due to a lack of his signature character quirks. The task just seems simpler as Depp just focuses on being truthful and responsible to the real-life person.
His portrayal of Eugene Smith seems like a distant cousin of Hunter S. Thompson, a cursed truth-speaker who constantly needs to self-medicate through drugs and joyous self-destruction. Despite the frizzy hair and a salt-and-pepper chin curtain beard, this is the least costumed he's been in a while and it is winning.
It's surprisingly funny too as Depp injects gallows humor into his scenes as Eugene Smith is someone who has hit rock bottom and is reveling in how much he doesn't care anymore.
We don't know what the real Eugene Smith acted like, but I'd bet good money that the ingredients for this characterization were a combination of secondary source accounts of Eugene Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Johnny Depp himself. What Depp was emoting felt real and raw like he was expressing something he wanted to say at this moment through his part.
Hiroyuki Sanada shines in a supportive part as a lead protester against the Chisso Corporation. Sanada just has one of those charismatic faces that makes the audience root for whatever his character is crusading for onscreen, whether that's hating Tom Cruise, sword fighting with Hawkeye, or shooting a rope-dart at Sub-Zero.
Director Andrew Levitas takes his time for the audience to sensitively familiarize with the various victims of Minamata and their families through the eyes of Eugene Smith. The cinematography uses the gorgeous Japanese backdrop for the audience to contemplate the severity of the situation.
Slowly, you end up caring for the Minamata victims and their families. Minamata disease is quite a nightmare. I was biting my nails every time someone ate raw fish or sipped tea. I was even wondering what the real-life Eugene Smith, who stayed in Minamata for three-and-a-half years off of an original three-month assignment, was eating and drinking. The film's social message played twice as powerful as it eerily mirrored the nuclear disaster in Fukushima now.
The middle of Minamata does sag just before the final act, almost like an instructor forgetting to set the timer in a free trial meditation class. I was suddenly woken up from a daze and the end wrapped up a tad too quickly.
Steven Soderberg's Erin Brockovich, a movie similar in plot and theme, is comparatively better structured in terms of plot, but I enjoyed the meditative daze Minamata brought me in.
There's a growing movie-going trend where the audience will only go to the theater to see big-budgeted blockbusters with special effects and slow-paced arthouse cinema is something that can be streamed later at home. That is not always the case. Cinema has a lot more to offer than that. After a year-long hiatus of not going to the cinema, watching Minamata retaught me that.