Maelström (2002)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Bring Denis Villeneuve back to Canada! Maelstrom is an early effort from the director who brought us Incendies (2010) and Arrival (2016), and a surprisingly strong one. This is from a director who's been hit and miss for me; Polytechnique and Sicario were overly dry, while Enemy was enormously derivative. Maelstrom is obviously a film with a unique vision, told by a dying fish. We have an abortion, which will enrage some of the audience, but playing Good Morning Starshine next as she leaves sets a humourous, ironic tone. Much of this tone prevails; while I was expecting something darker like Incendies, a colourful, unique tone runs throughout Maelstrom. After learning she accidentally kills a man with a vehicle, she confides in a stranger who tells her what's done is done; later, the son of the man falls in love with her, and in a quirk of fate, he confides in the same stranger who tells her what's done is done. Maelstrom is the kind of movie that's more than a movie; it's an experience like no other.

After watching the excellent movie "Prisoners" from 2013 from director Denis Villeneuve I decide to look up what else he made for movies. Prisoners was exceptionally good so I thought his other work would be of the same level but with Maelström I am a bit disappointed. It's not that it is a bad movie or so, but it's just not in the same ballpark then Prisoners. It's a movie that you watch once and then forget about it. The cast of Maelström is good, nothing bad at all to say about the actors. Marie-Josée Croze gives a good performance, playing the woman that has big issues in her life. The narrating voice from the fish played by Pierre Lebeau works perfectly well in the story. Even though French is my native language I had trouble to understand some actors with their Canadian accent. I could understand Pierre Lebeau and Marie-Josée Croze very well but Jean-Nicolas Verreault and his accent from Quebec I couldn't understand a word of his mumbling. Anyways, it doesn't matter to the story or movie, because I could just read the English subtitles, but Maelström is just an average movie to me.

This is a somewhat 'arthouse' film with lots of symbolic metaphors intertwined into the story. The story itself is not bad, it is focused around one main character and manages to sustain the interest of the viewer through some clever turns. The filming, the imagery, are extremely well done at times, managing to convey perfectly a sense of isolation/dissociation. The drawbacks are certain extended scenes, romantic interludes that begin to feel a bit slow, a bit quiet. Some scenes could have been put, like the fish in this movie, on the chopping block. Still other scenes seem a little too fabricated/coincidental. Overall, this is a minor success, compelling and dramatic, interesting and original. No earth shattering epiphanies here, but still a solid tale done up in many colours.

MAELSTROM labored far too hard be unconventional, yet Denis Villeneuve(director) did demonstrate the possibility for a very interesting film. Guilt due to an abortion which is exacerbated by a hit and run incident communicates a compelling narrative, but why introduce...a talking fish??? Sure, one could make a case for a 'talking fish', but how about a 'laughing typewriter', or an 'all knowing piece of cheese'. You just can't introduce something so outré without explanation, or you cross the line into extreme pretension. Of course, the 'talking fish' might represent Fertility, yet 'a laughing typewriter' could also indicate a playful creator, or 'an all knowing piece of cheese' could represent all of the above. If you want to get weird, the weird can turn pro. MAELSTROM had a fine cast, but the script failed to blend the ham-fisted element of 'the fishy fable' with the story's inherent dramatic subject matter, and in the end, the film aborted