Saturday, December 22, 2012
HIGH WOO WOO
Today's Romain Duris film is an American/French/Quebecois venture
in which he speaks mostly english but there is an excuse for his accent. A french boy who was nearly killed in an accident. Now a high pressure lawyer estranged from his family.
He runs into or is run into by John Malkovich who talks riddles about death and seeing an aura when people are due to go off this mortal coil.
Suffice to say that there is a bit of mumbo jumbo and directorial misdirection but at the bottom line, it is a good story with some gentle suspense and some very lovely photography. Shots in New York City, what turns out to have been Canada for some rural scenes and the New Mexican Desert. Skies. Ponds. Swans. Kids. Beautiful stuff. Even Duris is beautifully filmed along with the scenery. He dominates the film. It is his point of view so he is on almost all the time. All the time? Probably.
I liked it. It is not the best film I ever saw and certainly not his best but it works and had me into it for most of the time. I only looked at the clock near the end and it was pretty near the finale.
I usually don't like Malcovich but he is good here. Toned way down. Obviously a tough director. Not a lot, well a little, scenery chewing. But, after all, he is sharing the scene with Duris.
This is quite different for Duris and while the film didn't get distributed here, straight to DVD, it is worth seeing as many films that take this path are worth seeing.
I did see it before, incidentally, and didn't remember a lot of it. So it is medium impact. A 3 out of Netflix5.
I like this trailer. It is for France, so it is subtitled backward from the normal Duris film.
Labels: films
