Momo – the 1973 fantasy novel by German author Michael Ende, who also wrote The Neverending Story – has been adapted in live and animated forms before, in 1986 and 2001. This latest version, too, is ostensibly a live-action film – but it’s been made with so many visual effects it might as well have been a cartoon. Still, the residual human element represented by the cast feels necessary, given the story is about the dangers of letting capitalism suck away our ability to enjoy the moment.
Over the years, readers have posited all kinds of metaphorical interpretations of the plot, which involves a world where grey beings arrive and con everyone into literally “banking” their time, so as to have it all to themselves. Only the urchin Momo, here played by teen actor Alexa Goodall (whose gorgeous supernova of ginger curls is practically another character in the film), can save the world.
