Chaos Walking Stumbles, Trips, Faceplants
Ten years. Chaos Walking, Lionsgate’s adaptation of Patrick Ness’ young adult sci-fi novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, has made its way to screens after a decade-long gestation, finally arriving after the studio snapped up distribution rights for the project in 2011, after shooting started in 2017, after abysmal test screenings forced expensive reshoots in 2019, and after COVID-19 pushed its release from January 2021 to March. Admittedly the last of these isn’t a particularly large leap, and after so much energy invested in transitioning the story to a new medium, what’s another couple of months, anyways? Having waited this long, the movie’s audience should be able to wait a little longer.
The cruel part is that maybe they’d have been happier waiting longer, still: Chaos Walking is a shockingly flimsy enterprise, an hour and a half of wispy characters chasing each other through generic rugged woodlands, braving dangers both alien and human on their mission to find a functioning radio. This doesn’t do Chaos Walking’s logline justice, perhaps, but given its massive thematic potential, there’s little nestled within the narrative to hang onto. A cast stacked with Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo and David Oyelowo should at least be compelling and watchable for performances alone. But Chaos Walking so eagerly hurries to nowhere that only a few have the chance to stand out in the morass.
Chaos Walking takes place on the New World, an Earthlike planet inhabited by extraterrestrial creatures called Spackle and, more specifically, within the limits of the frontier burg Prentisstown. Holland plays Todd, not only a boy of Prentisstown, but the last boy: Every woman in the (new) world is dead at the hands of Spackle, leaving the men behind to sort out their messes, a grim task made complicated by the presence of the Noise. Only men feel the effects of this affliction, which broadcasts their thoughts at all times if they’re not skilled in keeping their inner voice mum. Between that and the absence of a day/night cycle, Prentisstown’s men spend their days in perpetually foul moods. It’s a real drag, especially for a teen who’s never laid eyes on a girl in his life.
Then, out of the blue, one falls from the sky: Viola (Ridley), a young lady who has lived her whole life in space and only now been sent to the New World with a fresh round of terran settlers. Todd has no idea what to make of her, except that she’s pretty, and her hair is yellow, and he’s such a hormonal neurotic mess that he can’t shut his brain up, so she knows he thinks she’s pretty. Holland conveys this dynamic perfectly. He strikes a great dour face, but his inner monologue is punctuated with “aw, shucks, ah geez” chagrin, an escalating sense of embarrassment at his own mental impropriety. He’s hilarious. It’s these moments where Chaos Walking actually feels like it’s onto something, whether Todd is making a hormonal fool of himself or struggling with his own acculturated sense of what “being a man” means.