Bones and All is a lovely, tender, heart-felt romance between two cannibals. It’s also a bit of a horror story… but not because the two lovers are cannibals, but because there’s a less (ahem) savory cannibal lurking about. Yes, this is a weird one.
The film stars Taylor Russell as a young lady with a penchant for chowing down on other people. Her dad bails on her so she goes on a journey of self-discovery where she meets first Mark Rylance and then Timothée Chalamet, both also quite fond of the human chicken fingers. Since this is a romance, I’ll give you two guesses who she’s more fond of (hint: it’s the prettier of the two).
I… am not sure what to make of this film. If you remove the cannibalism, it’s just a sweet little personal journey of a girl trying to find herself and then find a place to just be in this world. Of a broken boy who loves her and how they go on a road trip across middle America to discover who they can be as a couple.
It’s also a movie about cannibals who can sniff each other out. And, unfortunately, I’m not sure I’m able to make the great connection there. You could remove the cannibalism and have a perfectly sound movie… which makes me think they thought they needed to add some salt to the broth to sell this movie on shock value and weirdness.
It’s possibly I’m missing the analogy that the consumption of human flesh represents. Maybe I am… and certainly the love story at the heart of the film is supposed to make me think it’s so pure and passionate that these two might just want to eat each other up. But I don’t think it was all that great… but maybe that’s my limitation as a human being.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty good movie just as a story about a girl and a boy falling in love. The movie looks great with beuatiful vista and use of sunlight and even makes the most run-down midwest town look glowing in its averageness. There are a couple legit creepy moments involving cannibalism that are startling. I’ve certainly never seen Mark Rylance this creepy before, that’s for sure.
But, in the long run, the movie felt uneven since its weird premise never quite jelled for me. As a pure drama or romance though, it’s lovely and (ahem) sweet.
Score: 82