This will be my first review here and I don't think I could have picked a more depressing film to start with. I'm just going to run through the film with a SPOILER filled review so anyone who has yet to see this should stop reading.
did this movie entertain me? No it did not, it was a tough uncomfortable watch. Was it a good movie? Yes it was.
The movie began with silent credits, I cranked up sound , then images kick in and I get fright of my life when sound booms out my speakers, horror movies should do that, I was not expecting a fright watching an intimate drama.
We are shown an apartment that will become our home for the next two hours, pretty nice place, spacious and very tidy, fire fighters force their way in to be greeted by an obvious stench of deathly decay, duct taped doors and an old woman laid out with loving care deceased on a bed.
Next scene finds us at a music concert and we are in the recent past with the old woman from the bed and her husband, Anne and Georges, a few scenes establish them as retired music teachers in their eighties with a daughter married to an English guy . Georges is instantly likable and easy to follow and empathise with, and the dedication he shows as Anne has a stroke and becomes paralysed on her right side is admirable.
One issue I have with this movie is we didn't get enough time with Anne before stroke to like her more and I found myself not really caring about her, I felt empathy for Georges all through but Anne's predicament left me cold, this is due only to the fact that Anne understandably falls into depression and its hard to care about a person who wants to give up. If we had only more scenes with her and Georges being happy and active together we would have more reason to care and remember why he loved her in first place.
The first half of the movie has Anne struggling to come to terms with her disability and making Georges promise not to send her back to hospital, a fate she dreads but its when she suffers her second stroke that this movie becomes incredibly uncomfortable to watch as her body and mind deteoriates. Georges struggles to cope alone, an incompetent nurse comes and goes after a shower scene that is very uncomfortable to watch, Georges and Anna's daughter visit a few times, the second visit demonstrating the degree in which Anna has failed.
Georges reaches breaking point and can't bare to see the love of his life suffering anymore and takes a pillow to her face smothering the life from her after telling her a story that I kind of zoned out from, The camera shots are all so free of movement that I was looking at the object on the bedside locker not paying attention when he takes a pillow and smothers her, I was like "WTF" that's the second fright I got in this movie, more than last supernatural chiller I watched.
Afterwards its clear Georges starts to lose his mind, he duct tapes doors off, cuts heads off flowers, and writes letters to i'm presuming Anne. We then get our first action scene of the movie, a high speed chase around a room as Georges attempts to catch a pigeon with a blanket, by high speed I mean a slow stumble. I'm making fun of this scene as the movie started to lose me at this point. It wraps up with Georges imagining Anne alive and leaving the apartment with her, the daughter shows up and credits roll silently.
I've mentioned I got two unintentional frights in this movie and it is a kind of horror film in a way, through the thoughts that one day the plot of this movie could be the reality of our lives during elderly years or our parents or grandparents sooner.
If anyone was really moved by this movie I highly recommend a film called Iris starring Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, its similar to this but I found it far more emotional
did this movie entertain me? No it did not, it was a tough uncomfortable watch. Was it a good movie? Yes it was.
The movie began with silent credits, I cranked up sound , then images kick in and I get fright of my life when sound booms out my speakers, horror movies should do that, I was not expecting a fright watching an intimate drama.
We are shown an apartment that will become our home for the next two hours, pretty nice place, spacious and very tidy, fire fighters force their way in to be greeted by an obvious stench of deathly decay, duct taped doors and an old woman laid out with loving care deceased on a bed.
Next scene finds us at a music concert and we are in the recent past with the old woman from the bed and her husband, Anne and Georges, a few scenes establish them as retired music teachers in their eighties with a daughter married to an English guy . Georges is instantly likable and easy to follow and empathise with, and the dedication he shows as Anne has a stroke and becomes paralysed on her right side is admirable.
One issue I have with this movie is we didn't get enough time with Anne before stroke to like her more and I found myself not really caring about her, I felt empathy for Georges all through but Anne's predicament left me cold, this is due only to the fact that Anne understandably falls into depression and its hard to care about a person who wants to give up. If we had only more scenes with her and Georges being happy and active together we would have more reason to care and remember why he loved her in first place.
The first half of the movie has Anne struggling to come to terms with her disability and making Georges promise not to send her back to hospital, a fate she dreads but its when she suffers her second stroke that this movie becomes incredibly uncomfortable to watch as her body and mind deteoriates. Georges struggles to cope alone, an incompetent nurse comes and goes after a shower scene that is very uncomfortable to watch, Georges and Anna's daughter visit a few times, the second visit demonstrating the degree in which Anna has failed.
Georges reaches breaking point and can't bare to see the love of his life suffering anymore and takes a pillow to her face smothering the life from her after telling her a story that I kind of zoned out from, The camera shots are all so free of movement that I was looking at the object on the bedside locker not paying attention when he takes a pillow and smothers her, I was like "WTF" that's the second fright I got in this movie, more than last supernatural chiller I watched.
Afterwards its clear Georges starts to lose his mind, he duct tapes doors off, cuts heads off flowers, and writes letters to i'm presuming Anne. We then get our first action scene of the movie, a high speed chase around a room as Georges attempts to catch a pigeon with a blanket, by high speed I mean a slow stumble. I'm making fun of this scene as the movie started to lose me at this point. It wraps up with Georges imagining Anne alive and leaving the apartment with her, the daughter shows up and credits roll silently.
I've mentioned I got two unintentional frights in this movie and it is a kind of horror film in a way, through the thoughts that one day the plot of this movie could be the reality of our lives during elderly years or our parents or grandparents sooner.
If anyone was really moved by this movie I highly recommend a film called Iris starring Judi Dench and Kate Winslet, its similar to this but I found it far more emotional