#3 The Secret of Kells

January 3, 2021
The Secret of Kells (2009) ****
Hoopla
Free
Wildcard

When I spun the wheel today, it came up Marvel. I started my Marvel movie watch/rewatch in May 2019, and watched Iron Man and both Hulk movies (I know the Ang Lee version is not MCU, but I included it anyway), so Iron Man 2 is up next. This is actually a first watch, as I never bothered to see it originally, as I heard it was terrible.

But suddenly, it was almost 11p, and the idea of seeing a 2 hour long movie that is supposed to be kind of bad was too daunting. So I just started flipping through channels on my Roku, trying to find something without too much plot, or maybe that I had already seen, something that wouldn’t tax my poor tired brain, and also would be nice and short.

There were some possibilities on the Criterion Channel, like The Canterville Ghost, and some Mae West movies, but nothing seemed quite right. Then I looked at Hoopla, one of the public library channels, like Kanopy. I get Hoopla through my Glendale library card, and Kanopy through my LAPL card. And there was The Secret of Kells.

It fulfilled the criterion of being short, at 1h 15m, but I hadn’t seen it before, so I would have to follow a plot, but I had the idea that it wasn’t too terribly plotty, more about the gorgeous images and general feeling of the piece. I have been listening to a lot of reviews of Wolfwalkers lately, and this film has been mentioned often, as it is by the same filmmakers, and also about magic and ancient Ireland.

The animation is stunning, and so original and beautiful. It makes the best of all possible computer animation look cheap and shoddy. The shapes of the various monks, the colours, the angles…it’s impossible to explain, you just have to see it.

The voice work is great, too, especially the great Brendan Gleason as Brother Abbot, who is trying to hard to protect the abbey and the people from the Vikings, that he forgets what is also vital to save, the beautiful illuminated manuscript being created by his orphan nephew, Brandon, and another monk, Brother Aidan.

When I went to Ireland with my choir a few years ago, I fell ill on the day we went to see the actual Book of Kells, that this movie is about the creation of, so I never saw it, which I regret profoundly now.

This movie is stunning. I cannot believe it took me so long to watch it, so thank you, Iron Man 2, for being too long for me to watch tonight.