I think this is how Duncan Jones wrote this movie. He had an idea about a mute bartender looking for his girlfriend and another idea about military medics interrogating people for the mafia and decided to combine them.

Mute feels like an incomplete idea. Its very interesting. Great style, fun characters, action and looks esthetically pleasing, but like most Netflix products it falls apart the longer the story goes on. Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd were incredible as usual, but like I said before these two could’ve led their own separate movies.

The movie is mainly about Leo, a mute man, looking for his “girlfriend” Naadirah I say in quotes because I don’t really know if they are exclusive. It seems like Leo is constantly friend zoned. So Naadirah goes missing and Leo goes on a journey to find her and digs up more of her troubled past. Its interesting, but not as good as Rudd’s story as Cactus Bill. Bill is a military medic deserter who now lives in Europe, making money doing jobs for the mafia. His best friend Duck a pedophile who is a pediatrician just so he can spy on children. Creepy, but I like these twos story a lot better than Leo’s.

Eventually you learn that Bill and Naadirah had a daughter and Bill killed his ex because she was going to take his kid away. The relationship reveal kinda came out of nowhere and seemed like a random way to connect the two stories. A lot of this movie scenes are “cool” ideas, but ultimately didn’t need to happen or lead anywhere logically.

In the end, Leo kills Bill and Duck knocks out Leo just to fix his voice box granting him the ability to talk, because Duck wants Leo to apologize to him for killing Bill…..yea….Netflix am I right?

Overall, the movie wasn’t terrible, its just a few tweeks here and there could’ve made this movie stand out. I don’t think Rudd was the best choice for Bill. Yea, Rudd is an incredible actor, but Bill is a ruthless killer who can turn from smile to fits of rage in a second. I didn’t think it was a great idea having him crack jokes throughout the movie.

Obviously, the ending was a terrible choice, but just the overall story wasn’t that interesting. The big twist was to sudden and didn’t have any buildup to it. They could’ve built an entire movie around Bill solely, but chose to try to combine two ideas that didn’t mesh together well. A better idea would be if Naadirah, in her secret life, somehow was involved with the mafia Bill was working for and that’s why she was taken in the first place.

Overall, this is a very forgetful Netflix movie that had a lot of potential and incredibly acting by Skarsgard and Rudd. 5/10

World War Joe