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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 30 October 2012
This article is a review of LAURENCE ANYWAYS. |
“Our love wasn’t ‘safe’, but it wasn’t dumb,” Laurence to Fred
A blistering soundtrack and exquisite attention to visuals cannot resuscitate the dramatically inert latest from Xavier Dolan. Ten years of a relationship, in the pre-millennium, should’ve been epic, grand. (Tonally goes for melodrama seriousness, we’re not in WHEN HARRY MET SALLY territory.) At two hours 39 minutes the audience feels those years. Not in a good way. A story about a couple might have filled that time, but the way this was told could’ve been done in an hour less. There’s too much bluster. A shame, as Dolan is certainly a filmmaker to keep a keen eye on. When substance catches up with his palette, we might one day talk modern masterpiece.
A blistering soundtrack and exquisite attention to visuals cannot resuscitate the dramatically inert latest from Xavier Dolan. Ten years of a relationship, in the pre-millennium, should’ve been epic, grand. (Tonally goes for melodrama seriousness, we’re not in WHEN HARRY MET SALLY territory.) At two hours 39 minutes the audience feels those years. Not in a good way. A story about a couple might have filled that time, but the way this was told could’ve been done in an hour less. There’s too much bluster. A shame, as Dolan is certainly a filmmaker to keep a keen eye on. When substance catches up with his palette, we might one day talk modern masterpiece.
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Laurence James Emmanuel Alia and his lady, Fred Belair, are a vibrant young couple. That all might have changed when Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) announces he wants to be a woman. But he is still attracted to women. Laurence doesn’t want the status quo to be altered with Fred. And LAURENCE ANYWAYS is their odyssey. At least it should’ve been. I didn’t buy any of the psychology nor the actions of the leads. There’s nothing really being illuminated on transsexualism, and gender politics is tackled with superficiality. Maybe the titular lead’s metamorphosis is meant to be figurative? Though, of what?
Laurence is quite a bland persona. It is Suzanne Clément’s Fred’s wrestling and reacting that gives the proceedings some kind of way into the story. Her rant at a waitress about what’s been weighing on her is the one real thing about the couple’s interactions. I don’t buy them the rest of the time. As you can imagine, the responses from his nearest and dearest are mixed. The stony mother of Laurence (Nathalie Baye) adds colour. The inevitable phobia causes him to lose his job as a teacher. Though the reactions from the students, a colleague and the head are not what might be expected.
Dolan seems in love with himself as a filmmaker, without enough deserving, but his films might benefit from turning that affection on plot, pacing and characterisation.
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