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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 22 February 2014
This article is a review of NYMPHOMANIAC VOLUME 2 [short version]. |
[To read my review of VOLUME I, click here.]
“I love your wildness, your desire,” Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf) to Young Joe (Stacy Martin)
Raise your hand if you can sit through a four-hour-plus Lars von Trier project not quite firing on all cylinders. Yes, of course we can. Our opinion of his perceived persona is irrelevant, his work is on another plane – exhilarating and entertaining. VOLUME II is somewhat of disappointment though.
The promised darkness comes in the form of risky sexual encounters, in particular with Jamie Bell’s K. Having spent most of VOLUME I with the young Joe, it is now the turn of narrator Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) to take centre stage. There is no standout scene to rival the Mrs H (Uma Thurman) confrontation of Joe for thinking she stole her husband. Instead, we get S&M, a threesome, crime and a sapphic tryst.
Uneasy domesticity ends part one in the company of Jerôme. And now they have a child. There is even a little gag relating to the opening scene in the director’s ANTICHRIST. Thankfully Jerôme is quickly jettisoned. Not to add to the LaBeouf-bashing, as one feels he is a likeable leading man, but the permission for him to use some sort of cockney accent was inept. The mumbled dialogue drops like lead to a Londoner’s ears.
“I love your wildness, your desire,” Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf) to Young Joe (Stacy Martin)
Raise your hand if you can sit through a four-hour-plus Lars von Trier project not quite firing on all cylinders. Yes, of course we can. Our opinion of his perceived persona is irrelevant, his work is on another plane – exhilarating and entertaining. VOLUME II is somewhat of disappointment though.
The promised darkness comes in the form of risky sexual encounters, in particular with Jamie Bell’s K. Having spent most of VOLUME I with the young Joe, it is now the turn of narrator Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) to take centre stage. There is no standout scene to rival the Mrs H (Uma Thurman) confrontation of Joe for thinking she stole her husband. Instead, we get S&M, a threesome, crime and a sapphic tryst.
Uneasy domesticity ends part one in the company of Jerôme. And now they have a child. There is even a little gag relating to the opening scene in the director’s ANTICHRIST. Thankfully Jerôme is quickly jettisoned. Not to add to the LaBeouf-bashing, as one feels he is a likeable leading man, but the permission for him to use some sort of cockney accent was inept. The mumbled dialogue drops like lead to a Londoner’s ears.
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Joe moves on to “rehabilitate” her sexuality and confront her addiction. K, a po-faced, sulky sadism purveyor, becomes her choice of orgasm saviour. Bell is definitely not in BILLY ELLIOT mode. “There is no safe word,” he casually remarks as he lists his S&M club rules. Softening of the beatings is thanks to the sanguine voice-over.
Virtually every interior in NYMPHOMANIAC looks like a set. Is it lazy production design/lighting, or more theatricality from Lars? Or a commentary on the X-rated genre? The heart and playfulness certainly evaporate, to such an extent that the climax is completely fumbled. The denouement does not match what has gone before. It’s as if there was a dawning realisation at the lack of insight offered by the project. One has never seen von Trier expressly draw a conclusion for the audience as he does here.
Religious analogies continue to be grafted on. Lust and Western societal mores cannot be discussed without reference to shame and hypocrisy. The opining is half-hearted, as if tackling intolerance is too heavy/boring to delve into. Then NYMPHOMANIAC takes a sudden turn towards the crime noir flick, bringing in Willem Dafoe’s L and Mia Goth’s P; twisting the emotional ache.
Can people in a Lars von Trier film have sex without concomitant humiliation/degradation/heartbreak?
So many ideas, four hours plus are not enough.
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