Memoir of a Snail
Updated: Feb 23, 2025
Memoir of a Snail is a weirdly wonderful stop-motion creation about mental cages and loneliness.
Recounting her life story to her pet snail Sylvia, Grace Pudel voiced by Sarah Snook, takes us through her childhood traumas and broken family life after she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and lives an isolated anxious life retreating further into her comforting obsession with snails.
Its recollective structure plays out like a series of vignettes with each sketch introducing different core characters from Grace's life, from her former street performer handicapped alcoholic French father Pete (Dominique Pinon), her elderly free spirited professional hand holder friend Pinky (Jackie Weaver), her good-natured swinger adoptive parents, to her brother’s oppressively religious cult leading adoptive parents. While each character has brief screen time, they leave a definitive impression with their quirky mould and personality that hold a significant place in Grace’s world.
Animator and director, Adam Elliot's unique stop motion world building is like a cross between the grotesque tactility of Henry Sellick and the irregular caricature dimensions of Sylvain Chomet, but Elliot's comically sad Aussie junkyard world is his very own, crafting a comprehensive subjective life experience with absurdist tragedy and poignancy. Beautifully and sombrely score by Elena Kats-Cherin, and an exquisite voice cast it’s a treat for the eyes and ears.
It plays very obligatory on the heart strings from the outset with one bitterly bleak moment after the next, followed by a rapid-fire gag to go along with it, yet some scenes feature such distressing topics that it was difficult to find the joke funny at the same time. Despite how depressing Grace's life seems, there is naturally moments of joy and hilarity, especially from the kind and wise Pinky. The timing of the deadpan line delivery combined with the perverted sense of humour is laugh out loud funny.
I don't personally know someone obsessed with snails, but I know enough people who would probably see a lot of themselves in Grace, as someone who has endured so much grief and sorrow that they retreat to their own shell which is only getting bigger and harder to leave as time passes. But there is a warm therapeutic catharsis in Elliot’s film that finds hope in the deepest and pained of mental prisons.
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