“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” the sur prise winner of the top prize at Cannes 2010, is perplexing but pleasing. That’s exactly what you would expect from its Thai director-writer, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. (His friends call him Joe, and so, for this review, shall I.)
Joe has become a festival darling with such meditative films as “Tropical Malady” and “Blissfully Yours.” His new one is a continuation of the formula that brought him to the attention of serious filmgoers. In other words, you won’t find his movies at your friendly suburban multiplex.
Approaching death from kidney failure, Boonmee finds himself haunted by lives he might have had in the past. Now he resides on his remote farm, where he’s cared for by his sister-in-law and a hired young man from Laos.
Sitting around the dinner table one evening, they’re visited by the ghosts of Boonmee’s wife and estranged son, who’s turned into an ape-like creature.
It takes a while to get used to Joe’s peculiar style of filmmaking, but once you do, you’ll go with the flow, not worrying about the abstractness of the
plot. Are the ghosts real or a figment of Boonmee’s imagination? Does it matter?
As usual with this director, shots of the dense jungle, where the story takes place, are mesmerizing. In the most unusual scene, a princess and a talking catfish mate in a lake beside a jungle waterfall. That sequence alone is worth the price of admission.