Crew
Director/Screenplay – Christian Ditter, Based on the Novel Momo (1973) by Michael Ende, Producer – Christian Becker, Photography – Christian Rein, Music – Fil Eisler, Visual Effects Supervisors – Frank Schlegel & Michael Wortmann, Visual Effects/Animation – Rise | Visual Effects Studio (Supervisor – Michael Wortmann), Special Effects Supervisor – Dirk Lange, Cassiopeia Animatronic – Chris Creatures Filmeffects GmBh, Production Design – Ralf Schreck & Eva-Maria Stiebler. Production Company – RatPack Filmproduktion/Constantin Film.
Cast
Alexa Goodall (Momo), Araloyin Oshunremi (Gino), Claes Bang (Ritter), Jennifer Amika Pettersson (Liliana), Laura Haddock (Jackie), Martin Freeman (Master Hora), Kim Bodnia (Beppo), Madeleine Akua (Jenny)
Plot
Momo is an orphan girl with an ability to befriend everybody and get them to open up to her. She is befriended by Gino, who introduces her to his family. Gino’s mother Liliana is approached by Jackie who offers her a bracelet that helps her monitor time and use it more efficiently by banking it up. Use of the bracelets spreads throughout the city. Momo has a conversation with Jackie who opens up and confesses that it is all a scheme by her people, the Grey People, to steal time from humanity, which her people feed on. Momo tries to organise an uprising and protest among her friends but this is deflected when the Grey Corporation offers everybody free BibiBots, which are designed to become their best friend. Gino is lured away by being offered his dream job as a social media influencer. Frustrated, Momo tries to stand up as everybody around the city is being turned into people focused only on time management and ignoring others.
German author Michael Ende (1929-1995) gained a popularity for his children’s books. His greatest success was The Neverending Story (1979), which was adapted into the popular film The Neverending Story (1984) and two terrible sequels. Ende wrote several other books outside of that. His first published work Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (1960) about children who have adventures with a magical train has led to several animated tv adaptations and the live-action film Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (2018).
Momo is adapted from another of Ende’s novels Momo (1973), which concerns the titular young girl who stands up to the Men in Grey who steal time from humanity. This had been previously filmed as the German-made Momo (1986). Despite doing well in Germany, that film failed to capitalise on the international success of The Neverending Story and was little seen by the wider world. It did have the distinction of featuring the legendary John Huston in his final role as the time master Hora (a role played here by Martin Freeman). There had also been the animated film Momo (2001) and an animated tv series based on the book in 2003.
I haven’t read the Michael Ende novel. His works seem to buzz with a mix of conceptual ideas and allegories richer than most children’s fiction or YA literature. However, this film version of Momo feels as though it has been written as a formula children’s movie with all of the ideas and characters pitched down at a simplistic black-and-white level to make sure that everybody in the audience understands what is going on.
Ende loved allegories and metaphors. The Neverending Story has its Nothing. This has its Grey Man (made into non-gendered Greys in the film) who come to steal time from people and enslave humanity. In the film, this is made into a broad metaphor about corporate evils and people giving up the important things in life. This has now been very much coopted into themes relevant to the 2020s that never would have been around when the book was written – about the kids being given robots that become their best friends, issues about social media addiction and especially the scenes where Gino gets his dream job as a social media influencer. It feels like the book being wrenched out of shape to make a point about the modern world.
Internet sources claim the film has a $110 million budget (which I feel is a little high but may be wrong on that). It does allow bringing in a moderately well-known international cast – Martin Freeman as the time master and less high-profile names like Kim Bodnia and Laura Haddock. Amongst the cast, it is actually young Alexa Goodall who owns the show as Momo with a confident and charismatic presence that makes the character come to life. The location shooting in Serbia is made to work well for the film. And there are some impressive sets when it comes to Master Hora’s sanctum with its reverse waterfalls and giant swinging pendulum. I just wish it had supported a better film.
The film is directed by Christian Ditter who had previously made the popular children’s film The Crocodiles (2009) and the children’s fantasy Vicky and the Treasure of the Gods (2011), the English-language romantic comedies Love, Rosie (2014) and How to Be Single (2016) and the time travel comedy The Present (2024), as well as produced the tv series Girlboss (2017) and produced/created the tv series Biohackers (2020-1).
Trailer here