Maybe Go
The Red Turtle is a calm, serene & surreal meditation on loss, hope, survival & mortality that’s simple on the surface but dense in themes, is wonderfully animated but ploddingly paced. It’s the sort of picture many artsy folks will love and the general public will find baffling and dull.
When the film begins, a guy becomes lost at sea and washes up on a lonely island. He works hard to try to escape his prison-like setting but several times a massive turtle inexplicably derails his plans. Eventually, he attacks the beast and nearly kills it…and soon repents of this and tries to keep the creature alive. Now here is where the film gets really, really weird (and the implications are disturbing if you think about it)….the turtle magically becomes a woman and the pair fall in love. Soon they have a son and the son seems to have a strong affinity for hanging out with sea turtles. Pretty weird? As to what’s next, see for yourself. But be forewarned…the film is slow…glacially slow. And, it’s certainly not for all tastes. However, on the plus side it is original, the animation very nice and the music quite evocative. It’s more a film for very select audiences…folks who can look past the strangeness and slowness of the film. As for me, I really couldn’t look past this and found the film rather devoid of fun and was a bit of a chore to watch.