"I want you to love me and eat me, bones and all."
(4 ½ stars)
Warnings before watching the movie: Bones and All has lots of gore, if you are sensitive to this do not watch the film.
Director Luca Guadagnino and actor Timothee Chalamet
reunited once again since their critically acclaimed film Call Me by Your Name (2017) to bring us this coming-of-age story about young romance (oh yeah, and cannibalism). Despite its gory plot and the very complicated moral dilemmas these characters are plagued with, this film genuinely has the arc of a romantic coming-of-age story. The story follows young Maren (Taylor Russell), an “eater” (cannibal) who has recently been abandoned by her father and left to find a new way of life alone. Maren discovers there are others, just like her, with the unexplained biological need to feed on human flesh. Maren then meets Lee, played by beloved actor Timothee Chalamet, another eater who agrees to accompany her on the journey to find her mother.
The two young lovers start with a meet-cute (well, if you count the gruesome death of a trucker in a supermarket parking lot cute). This is followed up by a fast-burn romance paired with a cross-country drive (and the death and consumption of an old lady and carnival employee). One thing that stands out about the film is the chemistry between the lead characters. Although not much happens to them on their journey, you can see just through their movements and subtle dialogue the way they are falling fiercely in love with each other.
The movie has received criticism like this tweet for “romanticizing cannibalism” This would be a valid take however people fail to take into account the supernatural aspect of the eaters. These are not just random humans suddenly deciding they want to become cannibals. They were born this way, with the inability to resist their cannibalistic urges. The movie briefly talks about how it is a hereditary problem. Both Lee and Maren have relatives who are “eaters”. Despite this, the movie does address the moral dilemmas their condition leads them to face. One scene that sticks out to me of this happening is when Lee and Maren run into two other eaters, Jake and Brad. They think both individuals are like them when Jake reveals that Brad in fact wasn’t born like this, but chose to become a cannibal after seeing him eat someone. This disgusts Maren, and we begin to see how shameful she feels because of her condition. Many have used this as an allegory for mental health problems. The “eaters” are clearly doing some of the evilest and inhumane things a person can be capable of, but they physically cannot stop themselves. It causes viewers to sympathize with characters who would otherwise be seen as monsters.
Showing Something in a romantic context is not always romanticizing it. The entirety of the movie shows how lonely and isolating it is as an eater. Maren and Lee are left by nearly everyone in their lives, with only each other to cling to. To romanticize something is to make the audience wish for it, and I guarantee you that no matter how beautiful the story was, nobody left the theaters and thought “wow I’m gonna go eat someone now!” However, this is not to say that the movie wasn’t horrific. My own mom had to leave halfway through because the gore upset her so much. Although it doesn’t go into extreme amounts of detail, characters are shown consuming human flesh. There is lots of blood and other upsetting situations and topics discussed. This film is NOT for everyone.
That being said I personally had no problem with the amount of gore. I think it is a very interesting concept to show something so horrific through the lens of a romantic story. The film perfectly captured real all-consuming love, while mixing in aspects of horror. The two very contrasting genres combined together made a very compelling story. The flaws I had with the film had less to do with the gore and more with the overarching plot. The story itself at times felt like something was missing. An example of this is when the climax fight with the main antagonist happens, it is very sudden. It might be because I read the novel on which the film is based on, which went into more detail about his character, but it felt like there was no real reason for him to want to attack Maren.
Sometimes it felt like the movie sacrificed plot points to get more beautiful shots. However, this in some ways kind of worked. For a film with such a horrific premise, some of the shots were breathtakingly beautiful. Some of my favorite scenes, shown below, looked as though they were from just a normal movie about young love, not flesh-eating cannibals.
*THE FOLLOWING PORTION OF THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK AND MOVIE*
The ending was something so unfulfilling yet perfect. In the very last few minutes of the movie, we see the main character die, which is always something I tend to dislike in stories. Usually, I hate when movies end so abruptly, I like to see the way characters reel from deaths like these. However, this cannot be said for this movie. Lee’s death was something so disgusting yet poetic.
If you don’t already know, Maren eats him.
Despite reading the novel, which has a similar ending, I was in no way prepared for this. One large plot difference between Bones and All and the subject material it’s based on is they had to change a large portion of Maren’s character to make the movie into more of a romance. In the film, Maren and Lee have an almost instantaneous romantic connection. Although they are in fact in love in the books, we don’t see them interact romantically till the very end. This is because unlike in the movie where Maren seemingly eats people at random, all of the people she killed in the novel were those who tried to get close to her. Her affliction to feed was always triggered by some sort of intimacy. This is why we don’t see Maren and Lee reveal their feelings till the very end of the book, which ultimately leads to his death. This sounds heartbreaking, which it was, but he was fully aware that confessing his love for her would end up killing him, he just couldn’t hold it in any longer.
The film did not keep the same premise, most likely to utilize the excellent chemistry between the two leads. That being said, the way in which Lee dies is much different. At the very end after their fight with Sully, the main antagonist, he sustains an injury that both Maren and him realize will be the death of him. After realizing he’s not going to make it, he tells Maren his last words, “I want you to love me and eat me, bones and all." They don’t show a lot of her eating him (thankfully because, ew), but we know she honors his last wish. This leaves the audience both simultaneously disgusted and heartbroken. Their love story was quite literally ALL consuming.
The film ends with a shot of them before his death, sitting in silence together while embracing. We get no information about what happens after his death to Maren, but really we don’t need to. The ending does its job of leaving you feeling as though you’ve experienced this heartbreak, which in my opinion all good films should do.
*SPOILERS END HERE*
Final review: ★★★★☆
Bones and All was a beautifully shot love story that managed to turn one of the most disgusting and taboo things in the world into just another plot point in a tale of true love. So, if you are not opposed to feeling a little (a lot) grossed out and are in the mood to cry, I highly suggest seeing this movie.
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