Review: 'Memoir of a Snail' is a beautiful, melancholy story of a woman retreating into her shell, told in poignant animation

The Australian animated drama “Memoir of a Snail” is hand-crafted stop-motion animation that feels like something grown organically, like mushrooms in a bog — but a bog where only sad, profound and painfully beautiful things are supposed to live.

The “snail” here is Grace Pudel (pronounced like “puddle”), a lonely woman (voiced by “Succession’s” Sarah Snook) who, when the story begins, has held the hand of her elderly best friend and surrogate mother, Pinky (voiced by Jacki Weaver), in her dying breath. As Grace sits in Pinky’s garden, she releases the jar of snails she has raised for years, and in the process tells one snail, Sylvia (named for her late mom’s favorite author), her life story.

It’s a harrowing one. Born prematurely and with a cleft lip, Grace was a twin — her brother, Gilbert, was born shortly after her, after which their mother promptly died. They lived with their father, Percy (voiced by Dominique Pinon), a former street performer in Paris who emigrated to Australia and became a paraplegic and an alcoholic. 

Gilbert protected Grace from bullies, who teased her for the funny hat she wore. Gilbert had dreams of becoming a great street performer, like his dad was, and practices fire-eating and other pyrotechnic tricks — often getting singed in the process. 

When their father died, Child Services forced the twins to live apart with foster parents. Grace had a reasonably OK draw: A pair of supportive if clueless parents in Canberra with an obsession with self-help books and positive reinforcement — who also discover a penchant for all-nude cruises. Gilbert got it worse, being sent to an apple orchard near Perth run by a sternly Christian couple who work him like a slave. 

While the twins exchange letters, in which Gilbert (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) vows to escape the orchard and rescue Grace from her mundane life, Grace finds comfort in collecting snails — both real ones and tchotchkes representing them. Grace also meets Pinky, who has lived the kind of adventure-filled life that Grace can’t even dream about.

Writer-director Adam Elliot has a distinctive animation style, molding pasty, doughy characters with giant, soulful eyes. (If you’ve seen his 2009 feature “Mary and Max,” or his 2003 Oscar-winning short “Harvie Krumpet,” you have some idea of this.) They’re a bit alien, but as outsiders they’re even more relatable and sympathetic — particularly when we follow Grace through a lifetime of pain and regret.

Be advised, “Memoir of a Snail” earns its R rating. The animated depictions of nudity and sexuality are strongly done — though they’re also the least sexy human figures ever rendered by animation. And the themes of loneliness and despair are moments that even adults will have trouble processing without tears.

“Memoir of a Snail,” with its grim color palette and harrowing narrative, may not seem the most obvious choice for animation. But the care with which Elliot approaches the story, and brings Grace’s hard-knock childhood and lonely adult years into focus, is a perfect melding of artistic fancy and emotional connection.

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‘Memoir of a Snail’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 8, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for sexual content, nudity and some violent content. Running time: 95 minutes.