Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Cast: Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Hélène Florent, Evelyne Brochu, Marin Gerrier
Rating: M
3 stars (out of 5)
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y), the film sets up an overriding theme of disorientation from the word go. From an opening sequence in Montreal where we meet Antoine (Kevin Parent), a man who the narrator explains is very happy, there is every reason to suspect that this may not be the case.
Forty-year-old Antoine is a successful house DJ. Trotting the globe playing to rooms of trance-happy punters, Antoine spends the rest of the time looking after his two girls with his new partner Rose (Evelyne Brochu).
After a very strange transition in which Antoine starts to dissect his life in front of his therapist, we not only meet his younger self, but his ex-wife and first love Carole (Hélène Florent), and Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis) an over-protective mother to Laurent (Marin Gerrier), her Downs syndrome son.
Somehow, all these converging people, places, and events are set to collide, but quite how is not nearly as interesting as trying to figure it out ...perhaps that's the point?
The thing is, you are never quite sure where you are at any time as the film's direction plays fast and loose with the flashback transitions between stories. There are some great performances, most notably from Paradis and Gerrier whose testing mother-son bond seems incredibly authentic.
Best thing: The sound design.
Worst thing: The confused transitions between time and place.
See it with: Anyone who doesn't constantly ask, "what's happening now?".
- Written by Mark Orton
