The titular species in “The Legend of Ochi” is given a surprisingly mellow introduction in Isaiah Saxon’s fantastical directorial debut, a blue-faced woodland creature similar to a capuchin monkey capable of inspiring wonder that instead has instilled fear amongst their human neighbors in the mountains of an island of Carpathia in the Black Sea. Quietly hiding in the dark as Maxim (Willem Dafoe), a self-styled spartan that has made it his goal to eradicate the species and the collection of lost boys that have been sent his way to be raised as men, there is a stark contrast drawn between the two as the humans come charging in and the Ochi hang back, reluctant to enter the fight until they have to with any aggression only emerging when they feel attacked. The lack of fanfare to accompany a character that Saxon clearly adores is notable when a sense of awe is earned rather than treated as an inevitability in the adventure where a growing appreciation of what others can bring to the table could lead to a peaceful coexistence and like the Ochi, it feels as if the first-time writer/director is bringing something a bit unusual himself.
Picking up the torch from the Steven Spielberg and Jim Henson productions of the early to mid 1980s that placed kids at the center of the action, Saxon refreshingly offers no apologies for an endearingly earnest coming-of-age tale, finding in Carpathia that Maxim has been so consumed with revenge and teaching his young charges to fight that he doesn’t pay as much attention to his daughter Yuli (Helena Zengel). While her father has blamed the end of his marriage to Dasha (Emily Watson) and the resulting fate of their unborn son on an Ochi assault, she has become accustomed to a place sitting in the back of his pickup as the rest of his gang heads into battle, yet has ironically become more hardcore than any of them, hardened by having no one to confide in except the death metal she can take refuge in. When a baby Ochi escapes the carnage of Maxim’s sneak attack and finds its way into the forest near her home, the young woman can immediately recognize a fellow orphan, only it wants to see its parents again rather than being repelled by them, and returning the creature to its family can fulfill both their desires as ideally it means Yuli gets further away from hers.
There is something mildly shameless in finally giving the baby Ochi a grand entrance in a closet not unlike the one Drew Barrymore discovered “E.T.” in when Yuli is first really able to lay eyes on it, but Saxon finds a subtle way to put a special spin on the moment when the creature crawls out of her backpack as if emerging from an enchanted forest when still tangled up in the ivy that it was found in and earthy touches like that throughout become an extraordinarily charming part of the proceedings. When Carpathia itself is introduced as a land where cars have only recently overtaken horse-drawn carriages as a preferred mode of transportation, anything that feels mechanical has no place in “The Legend of Ochi” as Yuli strikes out on her own and Maxim and his adopted son Petro (Finn Wolfhard) feel an obligation to find her. Emotion propels the rather slender narrative, complemented well by a magisterial score from David Longstreth that not only nods to the grandeur Yuli is experiencing internally as she is discovering the world outside of her parents’ purview and strikes up a friendship with the Ochi, but keeps one foot firmly in the ground with its woodwinds and percussion that are in harmony with nature. (You can sense the Ochi are very much of the earth as well, surely owing to the fact that they’re puppets rather than CGI confections with a real sensitivity to them.)
For all the bells and whistles that Saxon and crew throw into the impressive world of “The Legend of Ochi,” the strong performances ultimately sell it with Dafoe and Watson as Yuli’s world-weary parents giving far more gravitas to the characters than likely was on the page and Zengel really able to carry the film on her shoulders as Yuli has to make decisions for herself about bringing the Ochi to safe harbor. The simplicity of the story may hold it back from being quite as profound as its meticulous screen craft would have you believe, but as the film becomes more and more about families reconnecting despite the odds against it, Saxon pulls off a similar feat in making something that reaches across all ages to delight.
“The Legend of Ochi” opens in limited release on April 18th and expands on April 25th.