Sita Sings the Blues

2008 animated myth

Rating: 14/20

Plot: The Hindu epic poem Ramayana juxtaposed with the contemporary story of the filmmaker's divorce. Sita accompanies Rama into the dangerous forest after his banishment from his father's kingdom. A multi-headed demon guy kidnaps her, and Rama, with the help of a monkey king, has to go get her back. Then, Rama decides that Sita is damaged goods. Meanwhile, in the present day, a couple's marriage disintegrates after the husband is transferred to India.

I really liked the mishmash of animation styles which added a nice variety to the proceedings. The movie is colorful and frenetic, and the mythology is easy to follow. The filmmaker, a woman scorned apparently, also uses the 1920s (?) blues of Annette Henshaw, and the choice of songs blends very well to the telling of the Ramayana. It helps to humanize the story and proves how timeless and universal the themes in the epic poem are. The story's told with a sense of humor, with snarky shadow puppets commenting on the finer details of the tale in between scenes, and the loose, irreverent animation helps keep all of this fun rather than bitter. After a while, I started to get a little bored. The epic poem rambles a bit, and parts of this felt like a series of music videos instead of a movie. I also thought that an intermission was a waste of my time, and hated several scenes that bombarded me with techno music. More than once, I thought this wandered into the too-much-of-a-good-thing territory, and the point was driven home a few too many times. Still, much credit has to be given to Nina Paley who apparently made all of this on her computer.