In Your Image (2004)

People are voting emotionally.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

In the early 21st century, there was a lot of ballyhoo about the dangers of cloning. "À ton image" is a French film that tries to capitalize on that phenomenon, but does it without much conviction. The set-up of the film is too rushed, as Christopher Lambert (better than usual here, perhaps because he's speaking French) and Nastassja Kinski meet, marry and decide they want a child within about five screen minutes. On the other hand, Kinski's character takes an eternity to discover what we in the audience (as well as Lambert) already know from the start. This is a relentlessly predictable film. However, kudos to the casting department for choosing Audrey DeWilder, she gives a convincing performance and she does look like a clone of a young Nastassja Kinski! ** out of 4.

It is strange that a country who gave us the grandfather of SF novels Jules Verne and the first pioneer in SF movies Georges Méliés isn't a leading world SF power.There are so few real SF movies in France, comparing to the strength of their cinematography both in quantity and in quality. Supernatural, yes, from old, incredible and unforgettable "Marianne de ma jeunesse" to minor but beautiful modern flicks like "Va, petite". Throughout history we can find several great and/or popular SF movies like "Alphaville", "451 Fahrenheit" or "Fifth Element", but they are rare as galaxies in the endless space."A ton image" is a real SF, but made as a sub-genre that has been spreading for several decades in American production: the plot is not SF, at least not a classic one, but only one premise of the whole movie is fantastic. So once you accept that this premise is real, you don't feel that you watch SF movie any more, because the development of the plot is perfectly logical and realistic.And in this case if you accept that human clones can be made (what is more than certain), and that they already exist among us (what hasn't been proved so far), you probably have some idea what their problems (and ones of their family, friends, teachers etc) might be. We can have prejudices that come from science (this movie includes some suspicions from early days of cloning the mammals when the movie was made, but haven't been proved to be a scientific truth later) or from another movies (even horrors). And "A ton image" uses all clichés they could remember.However, apart from SF, the movie is surprisingly fresh. So we get a feeling that (once again) French authors didn't even care to make a decent SF but only used some of its premises as a basis or background of a family drama. No wonder: this is something where French are at their best.The authors are interested in the family. Already in danger, on the edge of collapse and extinction, the family life created by father, mother and child(ren) will face new challenges and perils. If a person can be given a clone, then single parent family gets a new meaning. The other parent, even if on the list of family members, loses all traditional roles (but, as we can see, can be given new ones); however, though a family life can be hard and stressful due to differences of its participants, the equality of them can also be hard or impossible to handle.Also, the authors cleverly decided to avoid usual family problems and family relations that are endlessly repeating in movies during a decade or two. There are no drugs, but alcohol is a real problem (yes, in 21st century). The mother's dark secret is not a child molestation in early years. And (blasphemy for modern movies) the daughter still approaching teenage years tries to seduce her father (it can happen, gentlemen from police and social services!) and her father resists (yes, it can happen as well, though modern movies and TV programs tell us that every man is a predator just for having Y-chromosome, and a molester just by the fact he is a father). So I wonder if this movie will ever be allowed to cross the ocean.Christopher Lambert is better than I've ever seen him (that isn't a compliment) and Nastassia Kinski... I won't comment her acting because for me she is a reason good enough to watch any movie. Anyway, her acting is light years away from her "Tess" period when she used to have expression No 1, No 2 and No 3 and change them at random. With a lot of help of young Audrey DeWilder and less young Rufus the very variegated casting list does an unexpectedly good job. Good camera work and editing can hide some weakness in the screenplay. Anyway, this is a movie that should be given a chance.

Knowing that it was produced by Besson's Europacorp, which regularly churns out commercial quickies, I had my misgivings about watching A Ton Image. Christopher Lambert(loved him in Albert Pyun's Mean Guns) and Nastassja Kinski are both fine actors who've had better days and have now moved to the B-list, which is a pity. If these two actors weren't starring in it, I'd never watch this film.Lambert and Kinski play a couple and they have a daughter. The direction is non-existent, main actors are wasted in no-dimensional roles. Lambert sleepwalks through entire film, his character could have been played by anyone who's capable of standing around looking puzzled. Nastassja Kinski gives a slightly better performance, she's constantly drinking and gradually getting hysterical which leads to the impressive emotional outburst towards the film's climax. The film is also visually flat, photographed by Gerard Sterin (Taxi, Wasabi and other Luc Besson - produced works), who's a nice cinematographer actually, but that's the look modern sleepy thrillers fashion requires. There's a really goofy scene when mother and daughter buy identical red dresses and put on red wigs and jump out at Lambert from behind the tree and start singing some really stupid song. There was no music to speak of but some sounds that were used were really creepy. The screenplay is weird, senseless and full of clichés. The film is based on some novel, which 'd like to read and find out whether it's equally bad, unoriginal and boring as this film.

the German title of the movie was actually very tempting (im spiegel des bösen, which means translated something like: in the mirror of evil), "but", the movie was like i feared it to be. the theme was good, but the acting...... Christophe Lambert; actually i don't know about this guy. Either he has no feelings, or he can't show them. Throughout the film he only exists. only at the final scene, Nastassja Kinski shows some "acting" and feelings. Lambert and Kinski don't fulfill the expectations and stay below their capability. i think, the theme is not really meant to be a drama, more a thriller/psycho-thriller, but the development of the movie/story is too slow fur such a genre. I wished the actors would have been on top of their performances and the movie had it's own "dynamic life", in order to fulfill the requirement of it's genre... As a final word; if you're a Lambert and/or Kinski fan, enjoy the movie...