Adoration

The movie begins with a quotation from Boileau -Narcejac ,two writers famous for having written Clouzot's "les diaboliques " and Hitchcock' s "vertigo " .Let's be straight about this : the film has nothing to do with them ,even to the lesser extent , with the possible exception of the would be wicked uncle's setup .

The escape on the river may hint at a teenage "night of the hunter" ,but directing ,which is rather dull does not follow suit .The screenplay is a curate's egg : best thing is the character of the girl :is she that much sincere? Does that uncle who wants to get rid of her and latch onto her heritage really exist (the same goes for the kind grandpa ) ? Does she suffer from paranoia , seeing enemies everywhere from a couple of harmless tourists to a man who might be a pedophile to a simple hen "my uncle's spy" ? Her fits of hysteria may incline the viewer to favor the second hypothesis.

As for the boy, the character is thoroughly plausible in the first sequences : the episode of the wounded bird does not lack poetry or emotion, two qualities which would descends into the banality of the initiation of a virgin lad by an older girl;nevertheless,their relationship ,apart from the expected sex side , is more ambiguous than it appears first : the boy ,every now and then ,is afraid of his mate:perhaps a metaphor for the fear of the first time,most likely some kind of sin with a new Eve who takes her to a paradise (see the last sequences ,superbly filmed ) where a latent menace hangs on them.

I haven't seen other films by this director, but I'll be sure to. I'm thoroughly pleased with this one - poetic, unintrusive, but unsparing. Subtle in its approach and daring as it deals with psychopathy in children. It evokes great performances from its main protagonists; and another actress strikingly reminded me of the one from Spoorloos (The Vanishing).

Given the film is eerie, visual and intuitive, I don't know why iMDB needs me to add many more words. I may throw in some of the heroine's: "They are snakes and pigs. They want to hurt me. So you will not abandon me? I will love you then."

A very well-written story (three screenwriters), in which a teenager, Thomas Gioria, who lives in autarky with his mother, works in a psychiatric hospital, where he meets a new resident, Fantine Harduin, who turns his life upside down. She will provoke the adoration of the title: he is fascinated by this young girl.

Fabrice du Welz brilliantly composes atmospheric sequences, at times suspended in mid-air, with very rough and violent scenes, interspersed throughout a journey undertaken by our two lovers. Most of their journey takes place on the water, during which they meet a variety of characters. Their final encounter is decisive for the rest of the story. Among the people they meet is a character played by Benoit Poelvoorde, who makes a short but powerful and memorable appearance, also in suspension and on edge.

A beautiful film and a curiosity.

It looks nice. But it's the same tone from beginning to end, so becomes visually boring very quickly.

The acting is just ok - incredibly earnest with lots of 'emoting' going on to fill the vast distances between plot points or intrigue.

The story is a fairly typical young love drama. Our boy is inexperienced and because of this, he devotes himself to 'rescuing' our girl who is, like, totally crazy man. She's like, totally in an institution and the bad doctors give her sedatives and stuff. And then she y'know, like, says crazy things. She's like sooo crazy.

The writing of her character is unforgiveably weak. The boy slackens his jaw and gawps at her for most of the runtime. The film plods along predictably until it stubs its toe on the ending, which is neither tragic enough nor dramatic enough to matter. In fact, the ending is where the story should have begun. Everything up until that point could have been covered in two minutes.

Tedious, thematically transparent, metaphorically barren and in love with itself. Guff.

A young boy whose mother works at a nearby asylum comes across a girl recently admitted. He sees her a few times, only to be scolded. Yet tells why she's there is so her family can get a large inheritance she has been left with. The boy aids her escape. And in doing so, cause an accidental death, becoming fugitives. Evading capture, they come by kind strangers, and the boy sees the girl is not mentally sound as he thought. Yet affection keeps him trapped. So not quite as mysterious and horrific as the Swedish classic 'Let The Right One In', this film somewhat follows in it's footsteps. Hard not to feel pity for both the young characters, even as the girl unravels on the poor boy. Especially when they come across kind and unwitting strangers. Unlike Let The Right One In, where I felt a kind of joy that the two would continue on, and he would help her survive. Adoration really left me sad, knowing that the two couldn't go on much longer. But is clever in that it doesn't give full closure. Maybe becoming the next Mickey and Mallory of Natural Born Killers. Or to be soon caught, charged and separated? And the two seem fully aware of either. A strange but sweet coming of age story. And a realistic look at some serious mental illness far beyond Bennie & Joon.