Scarlet Review: A pretty movie with a pretty weak narrative

I was sick the week of February 8th and decided to use my Regal Unlimited pass to watch literally every movie in theaters that week in my attempt to rest up and get back to work. And, as somebody who really enjoys anime films (my favorite film of all time is Weathering with You) and somebody who thoroughly enjoyed Hosoda's previous film, Belle, this was near the top of my week's list in how excited I was to watch it. Did I love it? Was it disappointing? Obviously, my title spoils my opinion a little, but just ignore that... and get ready to dive into today's Reel Ranker review.

Getting the obvious out of the way, the animation in this film is absolutely stunning and is one of the most beautiful films I've seen in a long time. It's truly ethereal. Watching this at the IMAX pre-screening was awesome, as sad as it was that I was the only one in the theater. In terms of visuals, this film certainly deserves consideration for a plethora of awards.

And the same goes for the sound design of this film. It was incredible! I don't know what it was, but the sound design made the action feel so visceral, in a way animation usually doesn't for me. There's a certain action sequence where Scarlet stabs a dude in the groin... that scene was raw. I quite literally winced there, and it was all due to the sound design. That might be an odd way to explain how good the sound design was, mais, c'est la vie.

However, while the production value of this film is everything I'd hoped it'd be, the narrative simply didn't work for me. At its core, it is a simple revenge story in which Scarlet sets out to avenge her father. Of course, at the end, she learns to forgive, forgives, and then the film ends. The film ended up feeling too simple and too complex at the same time. It tries to introduce a bunch of characters in the middle, but none of them have enough time to be fully developed to become anything too interesting.

While Hijiri gets a little more to work with than everyone else, he ends up becoming so much of a saint that he's annoying. People will literally be about to kill Scarlet, and he'll be like "spare them, for they deserve to live!" or whatever his shtick is. It gets to the point that, when he is sacrificed to save Scarlet, and Scarlet learns to forgive in the way he does, it just feels unearned and a little silly. I'm all for sparing people and fair justice. I get that he is trying to say revenge isn't going to heal you, but he takes the whole concept a little too far.

Even Scarlet herself doesn't get much character to work with, which makes the film fall a little flat narratively. She's basically just a hardened, hero princess that's hell-bent on avenging her father and dealing with Hijiri's nonsense. We don't really get to learn anything about her as a person. It's hard to recommend a film that looks so great, but, sadly, left me feeling almost nothing about its characters or story, which is especially sad since Hosoda's Belle was great at those aspects.

A couple more mixed aspects worth noting: the concept of the purgatory afterlife here also just baffled me throughout the film. As a major believer in a joyful afterlife, the depiction of the afterlife here was supremely off-putting. Not that I would take any points off the film for this, but just throwing that out there. Also, there were a few musical sequences here that felt out of place and padded out the already slow middle act for me. I could see why people love the music and the purgatory here, but I didn't really dig those elements.

The Reel Ranker Verdict

Reel or Unreel? - Unreel
The Reel Ranker Score: 50%
Letter Score: C
Star Ranking: 2.5 out of 5

Scarlet is a visual treat that I wanted to love, boasting a few standout action sequences and emotional moments. Yet, the weak narrative and lack of impact leave it a far less memorable and powerful outing than Mamoru's previous work. While I'd recommend this film to mega-fans of beautiful animation, unfortunately, there's not enough substance to recommend this deeply in any other regard.

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