Mimics review
A cool idea with one nagging flaw.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Mimics
Directed by Kristoffer Polaha
Written by Marc Oakley
Starring Kristoffer Polaha, Moriah, Stephen Tobolowsky, Chris Parnell, Jason Berreth, Jason Marsden and Jesse Hutch
Mimics Review
I didn’t figure out what was bothering me about Mimics until I was driving home. I enjoyed the movie pretty well. It’s an entertaining little story about a killer ventriloquist doll with the ability to mimic any voice it hears. There’s a certain underlying creepiness to the concept that shines through even when the movie isn’t exactly going in the horror direction. The kills are pretty much bloodless and often happen off-screen…but they weren’t the point of the story so that can be forgiven. No…what bothered me while watching Mimics wasn’t easy to spot at first blush. When it hit me I couldn’t unsee it. Take that as a warning before continuing this review.
Sam Reinhold (Kristoffer Polaha) is a struggling comedian/impressionist. He routinely gets zero reactions to his sets…and is stuck in a dead end grocery store job by day. When a mysterious talent agency offers him a deal too good to be true…it turns out to be exactly that. His star rises quickly thanks to his new partner…a ventriloquist dummy that can sound like anyone it wants to. A dummy that will stop at nothing to keep the performances coming…and will kill anyone who gets in his way. Or, I guess, that he wants to.
The issue with Mimic is that it refuses to let its main character be unlikable. There’s a scene in the second half of Mimic where Sam’s love interest Virginia (Moriah) asks his grandfather (Stephen Tobolowsky) if Sam seems different to him. He replies that his new fame was bound to cause changes…but the real Sam was still in there. The problem is…there wasn’t much of a change to be discussed. Mimic is afraid to make you dislike Sam to the point where the character lacks any kind of arc. Getting famous and dealing with a killer dummy isn’t a character arc. It’s a plot.
Sam isn’t even all that talented. The lack of reaction is earned. Sometimes his impressions are decent enough…but they’re mostly nothing special. He isn’t funny at all. But he dreams of being famous. That’s all fine. But, when he gets what he wants…he remains unchanged by it. The first thing he does when he books a dream residency in Reno is to ask for a week off…to take his grandfather fly fishing. The lengths that Mimic goes to keep Sam clean are an issue.
Now, it may not sound like an issue. Sam is the character we’re following…we’re supposed to root for him in his newfound battle against evil. But the choice makes almost no sense. When he first puts the puppet on his hand and realizes that it has a life of its own…we see zero of his thoughts on this. He doesn’t seem phased by it…he barely seems surprised by it. Most importantly, he doesn’t seem to care much that it’s happening. Why does that matter? Because we have no idea what Sam thinks about his situation until the dummy starts to hurt the people around him.
Does he think he’s the talent that’s getting popular? Does he think he deserves it and doesn’t care that a supernatural shortcut has been provided? Is Sam aware that he’s responsible for the evil things that the dummy who he agreed to work with does? Does he even care? I have no idea. Mimic is so afraid that you won’t like everything about Sam that it doesn’t allow him to have anything approaching an opinion you might disagree with. The story waits for bad things to happen and lets him think that is bad. But it gives us nothing in the way of understanding what he was thinking when it was benefiting him.
Besides that, Mimics is pretty good. there’s a devil cult and the mimic concept has some fun moments. It’s dark when it wants to be…and a decent little rise and fall of a club star story. There’s even a bit of romance for those who want it. It’s all working around the main issue…but it all works. Well, until the end at least. Things get a little sloppy in the end. We’re not going to get into the how and why of that in a non-spoiler review…but I didn’t feel like the ending was earned. It leaves too many loose threads to feel satisfying even if it did.
Scare Value
Look, I get it. This is the story of bad things happening to a good person. The issue is that the good person isn’t talented enough to have any of this happen without the supernatural forces he signs up for. And we know nothing about how he feels about that on the way up. The lack of character arc here is a drain on every good thing that the story tries to do. And it does a lot of good things. Enough to recommend a watch despite the glaring issue at its core.
2.5/5
Mimics Link
Buy tickets on Fandango
