How can a film with Marion Cottillard, Vincent Cassel, and Léa Seydoux be so nail-gratingly annoying?
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. I wanted to scream. And not in a good way. Gaspard Ulliel plays Louis, a successful write who returns home after 12 years offing away with almost no communication, to tell his family that he has a terminal illness. The film is about how his absence, and the family's imagining of him, has affected all of their lives. What it amounts to is an hour and a half of angst and bitterness, whining and hesitation. Ugh.
Louis' older brother (Cassel) refusing to feel any joy lest his anger dissipate. His younger sister (Seydoux) has imagined a dream version of Louis she both idolises and resents. His sister-in-law (Cotillard) is the most sympathetic but even she is mistrustful of Louis' return. Rounding out the cast is Nathalie Baye as the family matriarch who turns to Louis to cure the curdled bonds within the family.
What grates is the lack of insight into what it was that has caused Louis to leave for so long. The brief flash-back glimpses we get of his pre-leaving-home life seem happy enough, and the horror-show that is his family now has been caused by his absence. There's something to be explored here about what we owe our family, about the balance we have to strike between honouring the familial bonds, and look gin after ourselves, about needing to get away from toxic situations even if you love the people you leave behind, but the film is not interested in any of that - it wants only to wallow in how horrific the homecoming is. We learn nothing of why Louis is so desperate to stay away; so desperate in fact that he has done nothing more than send postcards with 2 or 3 words on them for years, so desperate that he does not want his mother to know his address. We can throw out guesses; his homosexuality? His artistic temperament? But the film won't so much as glance in that direction. Home is toxic; that's all it wants you to know.
The main character is so blank as to be without a character. He is silent for much of the film. Many scenes are shot largely in close-up, rendering everything claustrophobic, but Louis does no more than look sick, and give a wan smile. An early exchange of looks between Cotillard and Ulliel gave me hope there was some understanding between them that would yield some insight or drama, but nothing.
Cassel is asked only to be angry throughout. Seydoux only anxious. Cottilard only nervous. Baye, at least, is asked to do a little more; but even she seems to see her son only as a way to fix her other 2 children.
Perhaps there is something to be gleaned here for those whose home life is truly toxic, perhaps this functions as a sort of acknowledgement that sometimes you shouldn't go home again, but for me, this was a grind.
This was the first film I have seen written and directed by Xavier Dolan. I would never write anyone off (there's always hope!), but it may be some time before I venture into Dolan's house again.
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. I wanted to scream. And not in a good way. Gaspard Ulliel plays Louis, a successful write who returns home after 12 years offing away with almost no communication, to tell his family that he has a terminal illness. The film is about how his absence, and the family's imagining of him, has affected all of their lives. What it amounts to is an hour and a half of angst and bitterness, whining and hesitation. Ugh.
Louis' older brother (Cassel) refusing to feel any joy lest his anger dissipate. His younger sister (Seydoux) has imagined a dream version of Louis she both idolises and resents. His sister-in-law (Cotillard) is the most sympathetic but even she is mistrustful of Louis' return. Rounding out the cast is Nathalie Baye as the family matriarch who turns to Louis to cure the curdled bonds within the family.
What grates is the lack of insight into what it was that has caused Louis to leave for so long. The brief flash-back glimpses we get of his pre-leaving-home life seem happy enough, and the horror-show that is his family now has been caused by his absence. There's something to be explored here about what we owe our family, about the balance we have to strike between honouring the familial bonds, and look gin after ourselves, about needing to get away from toxic situations even if you love the people you leave behind, but the film is not interested in any of that - it wants only to wallow in how horrific the homecoming is. We learn nothing of why Louis is so desperate to stay away; so desperate in fact that he has done nothing more than send postcards with 2 or 3 words on them for years, so desperate that he does not want his mother to know his address. We can throw out guesses; his homosexuality? His artistic temperament? But the film won't so much as glance in that direction. Home is toxic; that's all it wants you to know.
The main character is so blank as to be without a character. He is silent for much of the film. Many scenes are shot largely in close-up, rendering everything claustrophobic, but Louis does no more than look sick, and give a wan smile. An early exchange of looks between Cotillard and Ulliel gave me hope there was some understanding between them that would yield some insight or drama, but nothing.
Cassel is asked only to be angry throughout. Seydoux only anxious. Cottilard only nervous. Baye, at least, is asked to do a little more; but even she seems to see her son only as a way to fix her other 2 children.
Perhaps there is something to be gleaned here for those whose home life is truly toxic, perhaps this functions as a sort of acknowledgement that sometimes you shouldn't go home again, but for me, this was a grind.
This was the first film I have seen written and directed by Xavier Dolan. I would never write anyone off (there's always hope!), but it may be some time before I venture into Dolan's house again.