“Memoir of a Snail” is a new stop-motion movie that was recently released in October 2024. Adam Elliot is the director, writer, and producer of this film. The movie is available to watch on AMC+, Philo, and in theaters right now.
The movie surrounds a snail-loving girl named Grace Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook). She was born with a cleft lip, which other children teased her about, calling her a rabbit. Grace was born alongside her twin brother, Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who was her best friend throughout her childhood. Grace and Gilbert grew up with only their father, who was in very bad health, and had very little money. They found many different ways to entertain themselves. Their father told them that when he died, he wanted his ashes spread on a roller coaster that Grace and Gilbert loved to ride when they were children. When their father soon passed, they were forced apart, and given new foster families to take care of them.
Grace ended up with very loving parents with no other kids. However, Gilbert was given a very religious family on a farm with three other brothers. Both Gilbert and Grace struggled to find themselves while they were apart. Grace had a very hard time fitting in, which led her to hoard pet snails as well as anything having to do with snails, similar to how her late mother would.
Grace soon became friends with an elderly woman named Pinky. While things were starting to look up for Grace, back at the farm, things for Gilbert were only growing worse. He was still forced to be religious, and work alongside his rude brothers.
Grace eventually met a man named Ken (Tony Armstrong), and planned a wedding with him. She decided to invite Gilbert to come see her for the first time in about a decade. However, on the day of the wedding, Grace received a letter from Ruth, Gilbert’s foster mother, informing her that Gilbert had died in a fire that he started in the church. What Ruth hadn’t told her was that he only meant to set fire to the church in a fit of rage, not intentionally with himself in it. Ruth had locked him in the church, and let him burn alive, which is revealed later in the movie.
Not too long after this, she found out that Ken was taking advantage of her, and didn’t love her for who she truly was. Ken moved out, and now the only person she had was Pinky. Her snail-hoarding obsession also got severely worse. It was the only thing that brought her comfort, yet at the same time it felt so restricting to her. Pinky advised Grace to get rid of all of these items, and told her she needed a fresh start.
Pinky passed away soon after, with Grace by her side. In her last words, she mentions something about potatoes, which only confused her Grace spent ages trying to figure out what it meant, but she felt like all hope was lost. Everyone that she had grown close to was taken away from her. Feeling helpless, she attempted suicide by eating snail poison after releasing her pet snails. At the last moment, she realized what Pinky meant. She spit out the poison and dug up Pinky’s potato garden to find a box of savings that she had saved for Grace. Following Pinky’s advice, she was inspired to rid her surroundings of the snail collectibles that were holding her back.
We then see Grace thriving one year later, making stop-motion animation. There was barely anyone at the screening for her new stop-motion film. When it was finished, a man stood up, and revealed himself to Grace. It was Gilbert. He had escaped the church, and his foster family. Reunited again, the twins decided to fulfill their father’s wish; having his ashes spread on a roller coaster at their childhood amusement park.
This movie was quite the whirlwind. Most of the film was very heart-wrenching. The movie definitely could have been too sad if it just followed the events that Grace went through, but luckily, the charisma that the characters had added comic relief to the movie that made it all come together. Overall, I loved this movie, but it destroyed me, so I would never watch it again for enjoyment.
