Universal Language is set in the Winnipeg of an absurdist alternate future, where Persian and French are the official languages of Canada, turkeys wander the snow-laden streets, there are stores that sell nothing but Kleenex, and graveyards are bizarrely scattered among the freeways.
Director Matthew Rankin has created a Canadian Wes Anderson film through and through — this is a stylish, heightened world of whimsey, where children are left to their own quests navigating a world of adults who are so beset by their own absurd problems that they barely take notice. But Universal Language is far from derivative — it is thoroughly original, stylish, and off-the-wall.
It is hard to say there are main characters in Universal Language, because the film is a tight web of interlocking stories which fold back on themselves in clever and outlandish ways as the seemingly random plot unfolds. The film starts with a language teacher extravagantly berating his elementary school classroom. In a fury, he dismisses class and says no one can return until a kid that lost his glasses (after being startled by a turkey) gets new ones. As they wander the town, two children, friends of the de-spectacled kid, find a large bill of this alternate-future currency frozen under the ice. This sets them on a quest to find an ice pick to retrieve the money that can buy their friend replacement glasses.
Of course, nothing is easy for the kids — an adult also chances upon the frozen currency and send them on a wild goose chase so that he can have a crack at it himself. In the meantime, the kids go on an adventure that includes a cowboy-meets-used-car-salesman butcher, an alternate-reality Tim Hortons that serves tea in the dark, and a destitute adult trying to use a bag of walnuts as currency.
“…children are left to their own quests navigating a world of adults…”
Universal Language is not exactly a plot-driven film, although the characters’ stories overlap and drive each other in surprising and delightful ways through connections that mainly come as revelations near the end of the film. The film is so gloriously absurdist that we are mainly driven through the story by the continuous reveal of new elements in this bizarre and hilarious universe. Still, when everything does come together at the end, there are some emotional payoffs that sneak up on you like a wandering turkey.
The style, set design, and photography of Universal Language are elements that sell the film as an off-kilter yet smile-inducing quixotic universe. Think Wes Anderson or Tim Burton, crossed with an artistic, fanciful take on Winnipeg worthy of Guy Maddin. This isn’t as twee or happy as a Wes Anderson or Tim Burton film — Winnipeg in the Winter makes it much more grounded and muted and, weirdly, sells the absurdity just a little more solidly.
Universal Language won the Director’s Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes and had its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
"…stories that overlap and drive each other in surprising and delightful ways"
