Genre often matters less than most people think. The author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin, once described genre as "set dressing". Simply put, genre is the costume that a story wears. The implication of this view is that genre is secondary to the actions of the characters in a story and, as long as those actions make sense, the "set dressings" don't really matter. I find that this is true to a point but there are instances where choosing a particular genre is unnecessary or even distracting. This was the case with Mute, which is a passable action-suspense film that is trying, desperately, to be bad science fiction.
Mute follows a man who was left unable to speak by a childhood accident. He could have had his condition corrected but was prevented from doing so by his religious Amish mother. As an adult, he works for a crime boss as a bartender at a seedy night club in Berlin. He has a relationship with a waitress at the same club. The two seem to share real affection one another but it becomes clear that she is hiding something about her past. She tries to confess to him but he refuses to hear her because if he did, we wouldn't have a movie. Our hero awakens the next morning to discover that she missing. He then spends the rest of the film trying to find her and eventually unravels the mystery of her past and her disappearance.
This isn't an altogether bad premise for a film but you will notice that I didn't mention anything that would suggest that Mute is a science fiction. This is my biggest problem with the movie. It, strangely, tries to force a half-way decent story into a lazy future setting and there is no reason for that. If Mute was set in the modern world, just about everything would play out exactly the same. For some reason, however, the filmmakers felt that the addition of bad CG and robot strippers (and not very attractive ones at that) would improve a story that already worked. This unnecessary choice of genre and setting really hurts the film, in my opinion, because every time I found myself being drawn into its story I was pushed right back out by the sight of poorly rendered robot nipples.
Despite its weird setting, Mute does do some things that I really like. It is relentlessly dark, for one. I often find that movies blunt their "edge" to be more appealing to most sensitive members of their audience but Mute doesn't do this. Don't expect a "feel good" movie here because you will not find one. What you get is terrible people doing terrible things and our hero being left broken and robbed of what he loves which is great, if you ask me. I like a movie that is willing to depress its audience and Mute is one such film. I would be more specific, but there are things that I don't want to spoil. I will, however, say that Mute is very grim in a good way.
There are some holes in the plot that should be mentioned. I, like the animated spy, Sterling Archer, love a good rampage film but I need to believe that the rampaging character is capable of carrying out his or her task. In Taken, Liam Neeson has "a particular set of skills" that he can call upon. Likewise, in John Wick, John Wick is a former assassin. In Mute our hero, Leo, is a taller than average bartender. You can see how one of these persons is not like the others. I just have a hard time believing that a formerly (or currently, it wasn't clear) Amish bartender has the ability to solve a crime like this and eliminate its perpetrators with weapons made of finely crafted Amish furniture (that's not a joke, by the way).
Leo's inability to speak really doesn't make sense either. We are given a satisfactory explanation as to why he wasn't treated as a child but that doesn't explain why he never sought treatment as an adult. It is mentioned, in passing, that he doesn't have his voice restored because doing so would go against the wishes of his mother. This would be fine if he didn't live an otherwise modern life and work alongside robotic sex workers. Somehow, I think techno-boobs would offend his Amish mother more than a medical procedure.
The mystery is fine but the speed at which Leo pieces it together is too fast. Throughout the movie he seems to be moving from one step to another without any real work. It feels like a process instead of a puzzle. This may be more of a pacing issue than a plotting one, however. It isn't a huge flaw but it does hurt the movie a little bit.
Aside from the bad CG, Mute is shot very well and has a (somewhat unoriginal but) pleasing aesthetic. As I often say, good cinematography can add a lot of class to any movie and Mute has it for certain. I never felt like I was watching something that was poorly made. While I did not care for the future setting of the film, it did make for an interesting appearance. The costumes and sets are reminiscent of a cross between The Fifth Element, The Hunger Games, and Blade Runner. While I can't give it points for doing something new, it does do something well here. The lighting is great too. Much of Mute has a neon glow and I think it ends up looking pretty nice while working with its setting.
The acting is decent for the most part. Pretty much everyone is competent and Paul Rudd provides a particularly good performance in Mute. My only complaint is that some of the accents in the film sound very forced. The film is set in Germany and some of the characters come from various other countries but a lot of them sound very generically European. It wouldn't have changed the movie much to have the actors use their natural voices (they could say that this character came form this place instead of that place without much revision to the script) which leaves me perplexed as to why the fake accents were chosen.
I have little to say about the music in the film. It did its job, no more no less.
All in all, Mute isn't bad. I was never bored and the negative aspects of the film are far outshined by it's positives. It is unlikely that you will want to watch it over and over again but if you give it a fair chance, I think it has something to like. Just don't expect to feel good at the end.
Peace.
Unless otherwise credited, the images in this post are sourced from the film's promotional material.