Memoir of a Snail

A semi-biographical tragi-comic animation from the director of the wonderful Mary and Max. Sarah Snook voices Grace, a snail-obsessed child (and later adult) who recounts various episodes from her life.

I don’t know how much this film is really based on Adam Elliot’s life, but its endless series of miserable events made me worried about him. Memoirs of a Snail definitely strikes a funny tone, but like someone who jokes about their situation to cope with it, it tends to veer between charming and self-deprecating to awkward and uncomfortable.

Once you get on its wavelength though this is a moving film that hits upon little nuggets of truth we can all learn from. The animation and set design are excellent and carefully tailored to the film’s outlook and narrative arc.

Pitch-dark and frankly quite hard-going in places, this is a hard sell but a worthy investment.