Directed By Benjamin Cleary

Starring – Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Awkwafina

The Plot – Set in the near future, the film is a powerful, emotional journey told through the eyes of Cameron (Ali), a loving husband and father diagnosed with a terminal illness who is presented with an alternative solution by his doctor (Glenn Close) to shield his family from grief. As Cam grapples with whether or not to alter his family’s fate, he learns more about life and love than he ever imagined.

Rated R for adult language

Swan Song — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ – YouTube

POSITIVES

In his first directing effort, Cleary provides an underlining pathos and stimulating siesta of futuristic visuals that maintains a creative consistency in approach in the duration of his nearly two-hour passion project. As a writer, Cleary surmises all of the pain, grief, and paralyzing loneliness surrounding life-ending diagnosis, but in a profoundly rich and evocative manner that never feels meandering, nor manipulative in the approach of its direction. Instead, the film outlines many corresponding themes and what if? scenarios that audiences will undoubtedly indulge in, all the while pushing the creative envelope with the kind of science and intellectual ideas that provide a harrowingly haunting brand of technology, yet one surprisingly positive for the quality of life it continues in those left behind by untimely death. The backdrops and set decoration here are mesmerizing, echoing believability with ambition in a way very few films set in the future properly can maintain, while providing a sleek reflection of the moody atmospheric that cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi consistently zeroes in on with the scenic serenity of the pacific northwest at his setting disposal. The performances leave everything on the field, beginning with Ali, whose enveloping tenderness and expressive facial resonation inside of a vastly diverse emotional pallet enhance the grim isolation of his dwindling forecast, while supplanting us with two gravitational performances for the price of one. Likewise, Harris and Awkwafina are also a complimentary delight, with the former’s watery-eyed diatribes and the latter’s brunt delivery of twisted humor supplanting an endearing balance that allows the tonal consistency to transcend itself from feeling one-dimensional. Finally, the influence of a couple of meticulously placed McGuffins keeps audiences off of the beaten path of predictability throughout, especially in the aspect of Cameron’s clone, which initially feels like a conventional plot device to create deception or uncertainty in the context of the narrative, before settling into an ingredient in the introspectively psychological simmering pot that soothes and stabilizes the reality in Cameron’s situation that proves it to be the hardest pill to swallow.

NEGATIVES

While the entirety of performances in a stacked ensemble certainly resonated with meaningful precision, the outline of their characterizations are anything but exceptionally detailed. Instead, we get the one-dimensional kind of people that can easily be summarized in a trait or corresponding sentence, refusing to deviate from the expectation of bygone cinema that has helped to craft these muted shells of human existence. This is especially problematic in the ensuing drama because it keeps the focus solely on Ali’s Cameron, instead of on the affected parties that will be here long after he departs, dramatically underscoring their tragic dispositions in a way that completely undervalues the conflict, and thus resolving things in a matter that’s a bit too neat and tidy for the duration of the run time, on the straight and narrow path of the film’s thinly written narrative. Aside from this, some questionably dumb-founding decisions by the laboratory itself doesn’t seamlessly line up with the previously detailed depth of their procedure, creating unnecessary conflict for what I can only imagine is to keep its screenplay from appearing so dryly dull along the way. This could’ve resonated in the moral balance of the corporation itself when fleshed against the social commentary of the public eye, but it’s never explored as such, and instead comes across as too one-sided to feel natural or nourishing to the script and setting it could’ve undoubtedly accommodated. This also leads to an imbalance between the movie’s dominant genres of drama and science-fiction, which bend entirely towards the former, while virtually ignoring the latter, the later the film persists. At times, it almost feels like the technology itself is only there to cater towards the hook of the initial opening act, as it remains conspicuous by its absence during the film’s inferior second half, leaving much of this film’s ambition and corresponding energy stranded by an indulgence into the melodrama, that, while appealing, does become a bit redundant at times.

OVERALL

“Swan Song” certainly isn’t reinventing the wheel with its sociological outlook on the necessity of cloning, but it does provide Cleary with a highly impactful debut feature, full of stylishly sleek visuals and resonating pathos that supplant the big screen stimulation in a film geared entirely towards streaming. With a trio of stacked performances, but particularly Ali’s as the dying Cameron, the film finds its proper footing through shallow waters to create something compelling enough for audiences looking to waste away an afternoon, but never an identity of its own that it desperately requires to pass the arch of modern masterpieces.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-