The Congress (2013)

The Congress is a film by the Israeli writer/director Ari Folman, who is best known for his 2008 feature Waltz with Bashir, a biographical film about his experiences in, as well as the aftermath from, serving in the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon war, the story rendered in a verity of animated styles. The Congress is inspired by and rather loosely adapted from the 1971 Polish science fiction novel The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem. Lem's book was a satirical expose of communistic efforts to control the world populace through the use of hallucinogenic drugs, Folman's The Congress takes that same basic premise but recasts its perpetrators as the entertainment industry and its corporate overlords. Folman's device for getting us into this satirical, speculative work of science fiction is through the actress Robin Wright, playing a fictionalized version of herself.

The Robin Wright of the film, like the real Robin Wright, had gone from being a pretty big star in the 1980's and 90's to less of one in the early 21st century. With one of her two kids suffering from a worsening degenerative illness, and quickly needed a lot of money to take care of him, Wright agrees to have her likeness digitally scanned by a major studio, and to give them a 20 year lease on the use of her image, which they can manipulate in computers to have a younger version of herself  appear in almost anything they want, within the limitation of the lease which bars the use of her likeness in pornographic, and select other types of films.

Twenty years after signing the deal Wright travels to a conference of The Futurological Congress at a resort hotel in the desert to discuss the possible renewal of her images contract. Upon entering The Congress she is required to take a hallucinogenic drug which causes her and all around her to appear in the style of Ralph Bakshi-esque absurdist animation. While the live action first act of the film is genuinely compelling and full of interesting ideas and intriguing performances by Wright, Harvey Keitel, Paul Giamatti and others, the remainder of the film, largely done in animation, is less compelling. Which is not to say that this later part of the film doesn't  have its moments, it does, but the  animation style and general oddity of the proceedings get to where they outstay their welcome. The plot becomes increasing unpredictable, and seemingly less focused, as The Congress is attacked by terrorist and Wright ends up spending 20 years in a coma, only to be reawakened in a world were people see each other not as themselves, but as animated aviators like one might see on some contemporary online forums. The film does indeed have some interesting things to say, but is arguably overwhelmed by its style. I will probably need to give this film another look at some point in the future, but for now I give it  **1/2.