Ne te retourne pas

"Ne te retourne pas" was a quite of surprise to me. Psychological drama, with touch of a "Twilight Zone"-type fantasy, moved me in strange directions, and paths the movie so meticulously followed throughout it's course. The story of a parallel reality between the past and the present, told in a narrative style that resembles a dream, focuses the viewer on constant change of pace with twists and turns until the answer is found. Main roles beautifully portrayed by Sophie Marceau and Monica Belluci, two of the most exquisitely beautiful actresses of this day and age, are right on the spot of the story and we follow the plot to satisfying conclusion that gives a perfect explanation to it all. Of course this movie does not appeal to Avatar audiences that expect movies which don't provoke thinking.

This is a first film by Marina de Van that I had a chance to watch, and this young lady is in my humble opinion the future of French and world cinema. Such neatly constructed, no nonsense, cerebral film, which gels as a meticulously structured mosaic is hard to come by these days. Watching it is a fulfilling pleasure. Fantastic!

And to not give things away, you're not sure whether there's a psychological thriller or some odd crime-horror thing going on until near the end. Fortunately, it does stay consistent with the story it tells, so the ending isn't illogical or a surprise simply for the sake of surprise.

As is becoming more common recently, you're dropped into the story from the character's point of view with no setup and only minimal context, seeing the world almost completely through her eyes.

It also brings in some interesting facial/body visual FX morphing to help tell the story, so fans of the main actresses get their wish in seeing what they might look like if combined.

There are a few annoying plot inconsistencies and story development limitations, but if you ever wondered what a chick-flick thriller might be like, you now have an answer.

Director Marina de Van has been quite inconsistent in both her writing and directing over the years. While flawed, I really enjoyed Dans Ma Peau (In my Skin) and my interest in her was certainly piqued. 8 femmes (8 Women) was fun despite being formulaic but the real draw was the ensemble cast of lovely and talented French women.

When I read about Ne Te Retourne Pas I was very, very excited. It sounded like a return to the darkness of Dans Ma Peau and featured two of my favorite actresses.

I've found most French efforts to emulate Hollywood to be immensely disappointing and this film is walking a fine line between something surreal/arty and something painfully derivative. The atmosphere is pretty creepy, the visual effects/makeup are used in a very interesting fashion and the performances from Marceau and Bellucci are good but this film doesn't really follow through with the promises it makes in the first 20 minutes.

A mediocre film overall and it's really sad to see talent like Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci go to waste.

I must admit I envy the viewers that raved about this film in their reviews. My intelligence is not that vast. In reality, my intelligence is quite-quite limited, so I can only say that if during the first 15 minutes or so of watching this movie I was enthralled with it, little by little, because of its incredibly twisted story line, I was starting to have so many doubts and questions about the goings on on the screen, that eventually I lost interest in this very confusing dark movie.

Many-many things don't make any sense, for example, Bellucci, all of a sudden develops a very noticeable limping --no explanation for it-- in order to lose it completely for the next scene and thereafter.

What?

What happened?

Was she surgically intervened from an old crippling paralysis while the lights were set for the next scene or was just a shoe too small given to her by an unscrupulous wardrobe mistress?

The change of actresses was done digitally in a very fascinating way, like in "The Legend of the Wolf", but much more subdued.

The intervention of digital effects in straight movies will be, from now on, a fascinating tool to tell stories and also because unexpected in this kind of movies.

Well, the whole thing attempted to be a superb movie, but it fell down on its face with a fatal crush.

Jeanne (Sophie Marceau) is an author with her latest failing attempt. However things start to change around her. She notices changes in her family, her home, and eventually even herself. She wonders if she's losing her sanity as the new Jeanne gets played by Monica Bellucci.

It's an interesting concept taking a page out of David Lynch's playbook such as 'Lost Highway'. It has potential, and possesses some intriguing qualities at first. Sophie Marceau's manic mental disintegration holds some fascination.

However the facial morphing and the weird after effects distracts from the acting. It is a constant confusion of whether or who in the family has changed. In many way, it falls prey to the same problem that David Lynch had. It feels very gimmicky.