For many, myself included, one of the seminal reads of our youth was the traumatizing, tantalizing and entertaining story of a writer, surrogate mom and spider, Charlotte. EB White’s “Charlotte’s Web” is indeed a masterpiece, and recently I watched two movies that are in its tradition.
Like “Charlotte’s Web,” both “The Sheep Detective” and “Project Hail Mary” feature nonhuman characters who reveal a lot about humanity. It’s a common modern narrative device, used in novels and movies and TV shows, to have the non-human commentator observe humans and remind us of how weird we sometimes are. Think many Pixar or Disney sidekicks, Leonard Nimoy as Spock on the Enterprise or Alan Tudyk as the resident alien in Resident Alien.
Anyway, I’m sure Charlotte isn’t the first example of this trope, but she’s one of the ones who has the power to awaken new ways of looking at the world. Selfless love, mortality, empathy—it’s all there in that arachnid. And, for that matter, in that lovable bundle of stones in “Project Hail Mary.”
By the way, I appreciate the humor of Andy Weir, who wrote the book and named Dr. Leland Grace, even if someone else had to point out to me one of the obvious puns: Dr. Grace is the only human to survive on the spaceship Hail Mary. Hail Mary is full of Grace. I’ll write more later about that particular movie after I finish the book it’s based on. Don’t hold your breath—I’m a reader, but I read like I ride a bicycle or tricycle. Very slowly.
For now, back to the town of Denbrook and the intrepid ewe Lily and her flock, who work with a bumbling local police officer to solve the murder of the flock’s beloved shepherd. Obligatory and probably unnecessary aside: Yes, as I reflect on this tale, there will be spoilers—such is the nature of commentary. You have been mildly warned.
To anthropomorphize animals (or humanize aliens) is a common narrative tool that doesn’t always work. That’s the way with character tropes in any story, I suppose. If the animals are two-dimensional stereotypes, the story may be entertaining but ultimately fails. It’s the “Penguins of Madagascar” trap—you can have action sequences, witty quips and still come up with a stale tale that’s flat and forgettable.
“The Sheep Detective” is anything but flat. Through the eyes and ears of ewes and rams, the film ruminates well on prejudice, bullying, murder, mortality and the role of memory.
I appreciate the ensemble nature of the flock. The murdered shepherd, George Hardy, has spent each evening reading murder mysteries to his sheep, and Lily has taken in the nature and “rules” of such stories. She’s not alone—there is the hapless Winter Lamb, the excluded and abused Wilbur of our story. There’s the sometimes-sad Mopple, “cursed” with the ability to remember when other sheep can easily forget. There’s Sebastian, the Aragorn of our tale: the rugged, masculine outsider with his own tragic back story.
And like Fern in “Charlotte’s Web,” another aspect of this pleasing story is that the humans also have complex layers. For a while, I suspected the harsh lawyer—Lydia Harbottle, who is excellently played by the wonderful Emma Thompson—but it turns out she’s just a really tempting red herring. There’s Tim Derry, played by Nicholas Braun, the bumbling small-town cop who, despite his limits and awkwardness, in the end is smart enough to figure it out (led by the sheep, of course).
The comedy is partly what keeps this movie moving through it’s darker thematic elements. Like many entertaining mysteries, it both keeps you on your toes and tickles your funny bone. Lily, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, undergoes genuine growth. She learns to remember even the painful past as the way to be fully alive, and ends up embracing the outcast Winter Lamb.
Several main characters die, and their deaths have impact. The killer is satisfyingly caught. The lost daughter returns to read to the sheep and keep the now enlarged flock going.
It’s a satisfying, well-done animal story that made this viewer feel more fully human, and that’s the mark of storytelling that’s not baaaaaad.
