What am I to make of this film – one that has such a weird concept and such very distinctive content that it is hard not to assume there is a message in here, specifically when some of the film is such a heavy reference to certain things. Anyway, quick plot. We are in an urban area with buildings and cobbled streets and a populace without heads – how long they have been like this we don't know but they are trying to live normal lives despite not having heads, causing problems for driving and walking without eyes and eating without mouths. Anyway, there is one young man who has a head who observes all this. He is in a relationship although maybe it will not work out as he is so different. Meanwhile he has plans to change things. Finally (and here start the spoilers) he climbs into his home made guillotine, removes his head and is accepted by his beloved – they walk off into the sunset while a sightless pilot in a plane flies directly into one of two tall (towering, one might say) buildings in the background. And no I'm not making this stuff up.
The film has everyone with no heads, but the world is built for those with heads so it is clear they have all lost their heads – an obvious thing but here we are. So we then take from this that title character Danny is the sane one in a world gone mad – he still has all his senses and he can perceive the world in a much better way than others. He sees a lot of death and bad things occurring as a result of these people who have lost their heads. Indeed, the film closes with an image of people who have totally lost their heads – as a plane flies directly into one of two tower blocks, hitting roughly the same spot as the first plane on 11 September 2001 and exploding upwards in the same way. So we take the meaning although the use of 9/11 imagery is in poor taste and unnecessary to back up what was an already labored point.
Anyway, so with all this in mind, the film uses its main character to make the conclusion that, although the saying is (cooler) "heads will prevail", our Danny decides to join them so that he can be senseless in some ways but at least fit in with the crowd and get to be with his partner. It is a depressing message and yet it is delivered with a comic tone and cheerful acceptance that really doesn't ring true. The animation and the idea is fine and I did enjoy the delivery but the central message and the manner in which it is made is really bad – it also doesn't help that the "join them" message is finalized as a positive thing, just as the plane hits the tower which again is such a clear and deliberate visual thing that it is hard to think that I am just misunderstanding it.
Maybe I completely misread this film – at least I really hope I did otherwise it is a terrible message delivered in a tasteless and clunkingly obvious fashion.