Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose

This is a very underrated film about a real paranormal case that happened in the UK in the 1930s. I would recommend researching the history of this story online before veiwing, as ever be careful with the Wikipedia entries. I found that all of the acting fit the piece well and Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Paul Kaye were pitch perfect. In my opinion Paul Kaye is a very under appreciated actor capable of superb comedic and dramatic performaces. The film references a time from not so long ago when the scientific community was still willing to entertain the hypothesis 'What If....'. Isn't that what science ought to be, open minded, seeking truths and considering all possibilities? No, I don't believe there was really a talking mongoose but I would love to know what really happened. This film leaves you with that question to ponder, it's one of those films that still has you thinking two days later. As one of the other reviewers commented it makes a delightful change from the violence, gore and predictable endings of so many of the films made today. My only negative is that disappointingly an American was cast as the very well known British Psychical Researcher Harry Price.

Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose lives up to its title. Well the talking bit. Writer/director Adam Sigal comes unstuck with this strange comedy. Hungarian/American paranormal investigator Nandor Fodor (Simon Pegg) visits the Isle of Man in the 1930s to the wealthy Irving family. They claim to have a speaking Mongoose called Gef in their farmhouse. Nandor has been sent there by another paranormal investigator Harry Price (Christopher Lloyd.) No independent observer outside the family has ever seen the creature. Some have heard its bizarre voice inside the walls or under the floorboards. When Nandor arrives at the farmhouse, the Mongoose has absconded. The Irvings has not seen it for days. Nandor's assistant Anne (Minnie Driver) talks to the daughter Voirrey Irving, a talented ventriloquist in a house where the voice carries! Sigal prefaces the movie with a segment about talking animals set in India. However what should be a quirky charming comedy fails on all counts. There is too much talking because the story is slight. It is even left open ended when it is obvious that Voirrey was likely to be behind it all. The movie based on true events, the Dalby Spook but this film went nowhere near the Isle of Man to shoot. The actors playing the locals settle for some kind of generic northern accent instead of a Manx one.

I don't recommend this film to people who are looking for mystery, some thriller type of feel. It's totally waste of time to watch such a roughly written storyline. I personally think that story writer might have got confused and he/she intended to write a good story but failed and somehow writer convinced director that it'll make a good story because people are stupid they will make sense of such an absurd story. The one thing i would still appreciate is the actors did a great job I mean the main characters. The only thing you gonna learn from this story is simply this "everyone wants to be remembered, heard by the people" "People believe what they want to believe"

Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Christopher Lloyd? And a talking mongoose?! So then, pacing, subtle and blatant hijinks, irony, Howie humiliation and pop culture nods, then? Great Scott! Nope. Script and direction are bad, boring, and a shocking waste of acting talent. My wife is a determined fan of quirky movies. She lasted 40 minutes. I was already out after the laboured opening scene where slow dialog tells us almost nothing and takes a long time doing it, while we are distracted by cigarette smoke that serves no purpose in the scene. Could be palatable played at 1.5x. I mean, they spend TWO MINUTES just showing us idents of the various production and financing companies. Ugh. You're better off listening to the Half Hammered Horror podcast episode that recently accidentally tied in to the launch of this movie than watching the movie itself.

LOVED the movie, only thing that bothered me was why the accent choice for Simon Pegg to sound like the iconic Christoph Waltz? Even some inflections were like his. Did they write the part for him and told Simon to try and act like that? I dono it was a weird choice MOVIE was beautiful and fun though. Not funny and veryyyyy slow but a good watch. Something I'll probably watch a few times for the "vibes" I think my favorite part of the film was easily the stellar cast, stellar acting and stellar views. Again the whole thing is a big boring but it's nice and chill and has a pretty good story. I do wish they advertised it better. They made it seem much more interesting haha!

The positives are the quirkiness, slight humor, tell-tale untruths and Simon. From the onset it was clear that the script writing was initially forced. While Anne reads to Fodor and in the subsequent meeting with Dr Price, the storyline (from Frodor's perspective) goes from "boredom" to "exuberance" in a flash based on an obvious trickery of a talking mongoose Once past that, the movie troddles along with a nice pace, creating smiles and some laughter at the innocuous gullibility of the 1930's era. Today we just smile... I particularly enjoyed the cave part. It was sooooo obvious, but still worthy of a smile. The Irvings must have had a real joyride out of their constructed story (or should that be concocted) Cinematography was good, acting above par (although I think Simon should stick to the REAL Impossible Missions). Filming was good, as well at the locations. Nice touch personally to see Clive Lloyd there in perhaps one of his last performances. Always enjoy Ms Driver as well Kudos to the initial thinker of bringing this story to the screen. There are two nice endings..... before and after the credits.