Momo and the Time Thieves review – kids’ fantasy jaunt sticks the boot into capitalism

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.

For this iteration of the Momo-verse, the greys suck not on the time-burning cigars of the book, but on vape-like gadgets that they huff voraciously, like Frank Booth in a fairytale remake of Blue Velvet. Their targets – the normal people of the vaguely Italianate, kitschy dream town where this all takes place – bank their time with smartwatch-style bracelets that come with apps, presumably in a dig at our device-obsessed, time-sucking culture. How lucky that this has found its way to release just as the international discourse about stopping children from having access to social media has come to a boil.

That said, kids may be less thrilled by the idea of watching this than scrolling through TikTok; it’s a lot longer than your average cat meme and not quite as much fun. Director Christian Ditter’s script is thin on jokes, and the solution to all the story’s problems feels all too easily arrived at, via a deus ex machina setup with mystical flowers and a very fake-looking tortoise puppet with messages that magically appear on her shell. Martin Freeman seems to be somnambulating through it as the Oz-like hero, not having nearly as much fun as Claes Bang as the grey’s leader – cinema’s current favourite baddie for hire.