From All Angles: Marion Cotillard’s New Film, Rust And Bone
We've rounded up the top reviews on the new French drama; some critics seem indifferent, others think it's a "whale" of a time.
A French film starring the majestic Marion Cotillard about the blossoming romance between a bare-knuckle boxer and a whale trainer who loses both her legs in a Sea World mishap? Yeah, Rust and Bone doesn’t sound like your average Cheap Tuesday megaplex movie choice. But despite that nutcase plot summary, positive word-of-mouth about the film has quickly been spreading. It opened in Australian theatres yesterday, but before you lay down your hard-earned dinero, let’s take a quick look at what some of the world’s top critics had to say about the film – in today’s instalment of our regular feature, From All Angles.
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The author: Scott Tobias
The publication: The A.V. Club
Crux of article: Tobias was a fan of Rust and Bone director Jacques Audiard’s previous film, a Cannes entry entitled A Prophet, which he describes as a “sober yet gripping thriller”. But he’s starkly aware of its follow-up’s ludicrous sales pitch, speculating on the public’s potential reaction to a “silly-sounding love story between a street fighter and a whale trainer who loses both legs to an orca.” He sees complexity in this “sidewinding drama about two people overcoming disabilities in body and soul” and “consciously or not, trying to rehabilitate the other”, but finds fault with a slightly patched-together ending. Ultimately, he sees the film as a triumph of the director: “In [Audiard’s] hands,” Tobias concludes, “something as simple as a dip in the ocean becomes a vivid, sunkissed, restorative paradise.”
$2-per-word sentence: “It says something that Audiard’s ‘killer whale movie’ stages it’s most emotional moment to a Katy Perry song and still deserves to be taken seriously.”
Whale translation: “Meh.”
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The author: Kevin Jagernauth
The publication: Indiewire
Crux of article: Jagernauth intuits Rust and Bone as a simple story of those trying to survive the inevitable yet wonderful turmoil of the human condition. Despite Cotillard’s “predictably fantastic” performance, in which more is said in a “sly smile than anything spoken”, it’s clear Jagernauth considers Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) the real hero of the film. Comparing him to English star Tom Hardy, he notes Schoenaert’s “similarly commanding physical presence, but… with acting chops to spare.” Said “chops” are apparently evident in his ability to find “the vulnerability beneath his character’s exterior that helps us understand him, even when he’s at his selfish worst.” Jagernauth finishes his review by commending director Audiard for his dedication to exploring two multifaceted, complex characters, while also managing “a secondary social message as well, aimed at companies who treat their workers as criminals, leading to a vicious cycle of distrust and unemployment.”
$2-per-word sentence: “Simply put, Ali is impulsive, because he has to be.”
Whale translation: “Average.”
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The author: Anthony Lane
The publication: The New Yorker
Crux of article: In his inimitably sardonic style, Lane bluntly describes the film’s central tragedy – you know, the bit where Marion Cotillard loses her legs to a killer whale – as “an occupational hazard”. He hails Ali (Matthias Schoenarts) as her salvation incarnate, and cites his appearance as the catalyst in allowing the real narrative to unfold: “a rough and halting love story, set in the scruffy margins of the Côte d’Azur, and fired by a renewal of faith in the joys of sex and other essential functions”. He finishes off by dabbling in a little assonance (fancy) to describe Stephane Fontaine’s cinematography as “rich in shadow and dazzle.”
$2-per-word sentence: “Salvation comes in the hulking, unlikely shape of Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), who numbers bare-knuckle boxing among his gifts.”
Whale translation: “Naaaah.”
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The author: Dana Stevens
The publication: Slate
Crux of article: While immediately acknowledging the film’s “potential hokeyness”, Stevens’ Rust and Bone is one gritty, romantic and visceral triumph: “A film that’s as compact and modest as it is urgent and passionate.” Rather than championing any specific character, Stevens instead sees the film as a narrative about “the joys and perils of possessing a body,” something to which we can all relate. Although she describes Rust and Bone as a “none-too-original story of two damaged people whose unexpected connection helps them each find their way out of a bad place in their lives”, Stevens urges us to recognise what lies between the lines. Somehow, even “the long poetic montages of light on water, copious lens flares, and the pull-out-the-stops manipulative power of American pop music” seem suddenly enticing.
$2-per-word sentence: “A down-on-his-luck amateur kickboxer falls in love with a beautiful killer-whale trainer who’s lost both her legs in an accident during a live show at a Sea World-like place called Marineland. Cue the uplifting surge of triumph-over-disability music, right? Except not at all.”
Whale translation: “Winner!”
Rust and Bone is in cinemas now.