| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 11/16/2012 : 11:13:26
Both Marion Cottilard and co-star Matthias Schoenaerts give quite remarkable performances in this well-made but ultimately flawed boy meets girl meets whale scenario. The duo is worth the price of admission, and should easily be nominated for every award going.
Director Jacques Audiard [A Prophet; The Beat My Heart Skipped] has clearly learned much from his prolific writer/director father Michel. His framing - like some of the best of the nouvelle vague - sometimes surprises, but is always appropriate. Paired with evocative sound and often character-revealing dialogue, the film does equal justice to elegiac landscapes and brutal urbanity.
Tiny example which is not really a spoiler. There are some scenes of unregulated fighting for money. Yes, in some, we do witness the expected brutality. But there's one short cutaway, backed with the off-screen baying of the crowd a little way off, which focuses on the bare ground. Suddenly an object rolls into view. The sense of scale has been taken away, so the object could be tiny or enormous. It's white and of irregular shape. As it rolls to a stop, we see it's a tooth tipped with blood. The slight flash forward tells us all we need to know. It's a near-genius piece of film-making.
The movie's main let-down is the structure of the script. No quibble with the set-up which guides us to how the protagonists get together despite their lifestyle and temperamental differences. But from that point on there really are only two options - something will drive them apart, or bring them closer together.
The journey to either of those endings forms the basis of the film. Yes, we do get to know these people, though various questions always remain unanswered. And yes, there are some scenes with teasers which are never picked up and developed. And yes, we even believe in the here and now of the relationship.
But the ending itself feels arbitrary and almost tacked on. Which kind of raises the question of who exactly we've been watching for two hours.
But please, do see it for those dynamite performances. Oh, and I did mention there's a whale, didn't I?!!!!
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