Plympton is a genius and his film has more imagination than a hundred Hollywood film combined. Nevertheless, this film is a hard one to stick with. Even at an hour and 13 minutes, it feels long.
My objections are not the ones you might expect. I was totally open to Plympton's original and surreal take on life. I wasn't offended at all by the gross or sexual stuff. For the first fifteen minutes or so, Plympton's "anything goes" style of animation is both hilarious and thrilling. Inanimate objects come to life. Bizarre "what if" notions are suddenly played out for us in vivid color. We've entered a new universe.
The first half is very promising. I loved the scene of the main character having a tension filled dinner with his wife and her parents. (The in-law's house includes a framed photo of the young couple, with the son-in-law's image cut out!) These scenes show great promise of a man wrestling with the anxieties most new husband wrestle with (sex, in-laws, life in the 'burbs, balancing a demanding job with a wife who wants attention.) Sadly, the wife and these other elements are almost immediately swept aside so that we can have a series of belabored battles between our hero and the military-entertainment complex. These battles take up the entire second half of the story, and always end in a stalemate.
Plympton's universe, where the laws of physics don't apply and anything can and will happen, is ultimately a mixed blessing. At first, the freedom is funny and liberating. You don't know what's going to happen next. But after half an hour or so, it becomes repetitive and dull. If anything can happen, and no actions have any consequence, then why do we care? Nothing really matters here. Nothing is at stake. No one seems to want anything or care about anything. It's so unreal it ceases to be relevant. Our interest wanes. As cool as Plympton is (and he is cool), at some point the novelty wears off, and when it does, there's nothing to come in and fill the gap (The experience is kind of like that of watching an adult film.)
In the end, IMASP is about nothing but its own cleverness. I hope that for his next project, Plympton will put his considerable talents to work in a good story with strong characters. good story with stron
