timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2005-09-09 01:57 am
timepiececlock) wrote2005-09-09 01:57 am
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Love Me If You Dare: film review (French movie)
Just watched Jeux d'enfants / Love Me If You Dare. It was... odd. Quirky. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, but in a peculiar way. And in a few moments, shockingly painful because you feel the heartache. And then the heartache has transformed into another game, another way to one-up the other character.
I think at times it was a little too obvious, and at other times really succeeded with subtlety. The dialogue was fascinating (though it made me wish I could understand French better and fully appreciate the fast little quips and idioms) and very smooth, and the story was surprisingly fast-paced, but I don't think the second half was quite as strong as the first half. Also, I'm not really sure the message of the film was well done or poorly done, because I got it and understood it, but at the same time I totally didn't identify with it. I could never be one of these two people, never put myself through what they put themselves through. But at the same time, it has its perverse charm.
I'm not sure if it was a happy movie or a sad movie. I'm not sure if I liked it or didn't like it.
It was odd. It was pretty to look at. It was French. Really, that pretty much says everything you need to know about it before going in.
my grade: B+
In a way this movie reminded me of Moulin Rouge. Not visually-- visually it reminded me of Amelie. But thematically, as far as the story of the two characters muddled in a love so true it's a permanent part of their lives, and the franticness resulting from that love-- that kind of reminded me of Moulin Rouge. The characters in this film love so deeply and so crazily that they will put themselves through tests of their love so absurd that you wonder if they even love each other at all. And yet, you know they do. That celebration of true love as the most valuable thing in life reminds me of Moulin Rouge.
However, where I think this film suffers in my eyes and where Moulin Rouge comes out better is that watching the characters in this movie really is like watching a trainwreck-- but it's a happy trainwreck. About halfway into the film I thought "I wonder if these two will keep on playing the game until they totally destroy each other." And they did. But in a happy way, which is what makes it so weird. They end up taking their own life AND by proxy ruining the lives of others-- breakin the hearts of their spouses, the man leaving his children fatherless when he grew up resentful that his own mother wasn't there. All rather shitty. They had to die together because obviously while alive they were simply too destructive to one another. She took the oportunity to ruin his life, he took the oportunity to ruin his. And they were having so much fun doing it, even when it hurt like a bitch.
Moulin Rouge was a tragedy that celebrated great love, love that made you better while at the same time having its own destructive powers. It balanced the good and bad pretty well. This movie celebrated love as an addiction and two thrill seekers so in love that they literally couldn't live with each other and couldn't live apart. There was the celebration of love, but unlike Moulin Rouge, I don't think I could ever feel the kind of true love demonstrated here. Moulin Rouge was about true love of the kind anyone can and deserves to find. Love Me If You Dare is about true love between thrill-seekers and adrenaline addicts. It's pretty to look at, but I'll take the kind that doesn't end in me being drowned in concrete, even if I am dying while kissing the one I love.
Love Me If You Dare espouses love so much larger than life that you let it take you to the grave rather than let it go or change its nature. Moulin Rouge espouses love as something that makes life worth living. It's something to live for, not something to die for. I think I like that kind of love better.
And yeah, IdosortacompareeveryromanticfilmtoMoulinRouge.I'msorryIcan'thelpitIlovethatfilmsomuch.
EDIT:
I kinda want the soundtrack though.
Yeah, I do.
I think at times it was a little too obvious, and at other times really succeeded with subtlety. The dialogue was fascinating (though it made me wish I could understand French better and fully appreciate the fast little quips and idioms) and very smooth, and the story was surprisingly fast-paced, but I don't think the second half was quite as strong as the first half. Also, I'm not really sure the message of the film was well done or poorly done, because I got it and understood it, but at the same time I totally didn't identify with it. I could never be one of these two people, never put myself through what they put themselves through. But at the same time, it has its perverse charm.
I'm not sure if it was a happy movie or a sad movie. I'm not sure if I liked it or didn't like it.
It was odd. It was pretty to look at. It was French. Really, that pretty much says everything you need to know about it before going in.
my grade: B+
In a way this movie reminded me of Moulin Rouge. Not visually-- visually it reminded me of Amelie. But thematically, as far as the story of the two characters muddled in a love so true it's a permanent part of their lives, and the franticness resulting from that love-- that kind of reminded me of Moulin Rouge. The characters in this film love so deeply and so crazily that they will put themselves through tests of their love so absurd that you wonder if they even love each other at all. And yet, you know they do. That celebration of true love as the most valuable thing in life reminds me of Moulin Rouge.
However, where I think this film suffers in my eyes and where Moulin Rouge comes out better is that watching the characters in this movie really is like watching a trainwreck-- but it's a happy trainwreck. About halfway into the film I thought "I wonder if these two will keep on playing the game until they totally destroy each other." And they did. But in a happy way, which is what makes it so weird. They end up taking their own life AND by proxy ruining the lives of others-- breakin the hearts of their spouses, the man leaving his children fatherless when he grew up resentful that his own mother wasn't there. All rather shitty. They had to die together because obviously while alive they were simply too destructive to one another. She took the oportunity to ruin his life, he took the oportunity to ruin his. And they were having so much fun doing it, even when it hurt like a bitch.
Moulin Rouge was a tragedy that celebrated great love, love that made you better while at the same time having its own destructive powers. It balanced the good and bad pretty well. This movie celebrated love as an addiction and two thrill seekers so in love that they literally couldn't live with each other and couldn't live apart. There was the celebration of love, but unlike Moulin Rouge, I don't think I could ever feel the kind of true love demonstrated here. Moulin Rouge was about true love of the kind anyone can and deserves to find. Love Me If You Dare is about true love between thrill-seekers and adrenaline addicts. It's pretty to look at, but I'll take the kind that doesn't end in me being drowned in concrete, even if I am dying while kissing the one I love.
Love Me If You Dare espouses love so much larger than life that you let it take you to the grave rather than let it go or change its nature. Moulin Rouge espouses love as something that makes life worth living. It's something to live for, not something to die for. I think I like that kind of love better.
And yeah, IdosortacompareeveryromanticfilmtoMoulinRouge.I'msorryIcan'thelpitIlovethatfilmsomuch.
EDIT:
I kinda want the soundtrack though.
Yeah, I do.