Intriguing mystery drama that masquerades as a romantic comedy for the first 20 minutes. Unsuccessfully, I might add, because the aura of insincerity from Elle is radiating harder than Chernobyl. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it is attached to the killer body of Isabelle Adjani. So no one in that small town ever stood a chance. Flaunting her beauty like a scythe over a poor ear of wheat, when gradually her intended manipulation starts to reveal itself, it still keeps you on your toes because it never lays all the cards on the table, leaving a lot of gaps in both what happened and even what her intended revenge plan is. She is ready to go the extra mile for that. There is no goal more sacred for her than to see it through, and what comes after is irrelevant.
So it is much more bitter and rather farcical when the twist finally falls upon her and you learn that she was so wrong that it retroactively made her the biggest dolt in the story who ruined her life for nothing. At least, that's what the movie implies is the respectable reason for her going insane. Granted, she was a bit psychopathic to begin with, accompanied by those trademarked emotional outbursts Adjani is so proficient at. Walking that tight line between convincing despair and complete overacting, but it hardly feels warranted as the narrative acts like she already killed three wrong people and spent her entire life on this plot. She is supposedly nineteen. It is very Shakespearean, in other words, especially how, through a misunderstanding, it still veers into tragedy as her plan inadvertently comes into effect. The claim to fame of this movie isn't, in truth, the narrative, but Isabelle Adjani, who could have carried the movie by her lonesome. Thankfully, she doesn't need to, as all the other actors do not disappoint, making multiple POVs of the narrative not as arduous as they could have been in concept.
So it is much more bitter and rather farcical when the twist finally falls upon her and you learn that she was so wrong that it retroactively made her the biggest dolt in the story who ruined her life for nothing. At least, that's what the movie implies is the respectable reason for her going insane. Granted, she was a bit psychopathic to begin with, accompanied by those trademarked emotional outbursts Adjani is so proficient at. Walking that tight line between convincing despair and complete overacting, but it hardly feels warranted as the narrative acts like she already killed three wrong people and spent her entire life on this plot. She is supposedly nineteen. It is very Shakespearean, in other words, especially how, through a misunderstanding, it still veers into tragedy as her plan inadvertently comes into effect. The claim to fame of this movie isn't, in truth, the narrative, but Isabelle Adjani, who could have carried the movie by her lonesome. Thankfully, she doesn't need to, as all the other actors do not disappoint, making multiple POVs of the narrative not as arduous as they could have been in concept.