Do not be confused by the title of writer and director Guillaume Nicloux' "Valley of Love". This is a French movie, so you may need subtitles unless you speak the language. It runs for slightly over 90 minutes and stars Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu in pretty much every scene from start to finish. These two have been among France's finest for a really long time and in this film here they show us that this is exactly where they still belong in 2016, both in their 60s now playing a divorced couple. They meet again as their deceased son wants them to briefly after committing suicide. Or did he really?
This is one of the core questions of the film, but it's all really just about the character study of the two protagonists. It's 95% drama for sure with this sad background of their meeting, but Dépardieu's talent makes up for occasional comic relief. You can think about him what you want looking at all the escapades and comments that were reported in the media, but the only thing that counts is what an outstanding actor he still is. He also has good chemistry with Huppert here and it was somewhat funny to watch them together in terms of proportions.
The most crucial recurring theme in the film was definitely death, not only because the entire thing takes place near/in Death Valley, but also with the story of their son, the cancer reference, the death of a marriage, very telling dream sequences and a lot more. To be honest, I was truly surprised that Dépardieu's character made it out of this film alive. I expected him to die any minute towards the end, but I guess his heart was still most intact in contrast to his bladder. "Valley of Love" is a pretty slow movie and not a lot is happening really which many voters may find unappealing, but I did not. What I did not like, however, was the reference to this strange rash, which became really important as it was also used dominantly in the final shot. This did not do too much for me sadly, which hurt the overall perception a bit. I cannot say this film had any really great moments, but it was pretty convincing thank to the one good and one great lead performance. I recommend it. If you like the actors, you will certainly not be let down.
This is one of the core questions of the film, but it's all really just about the character study of the two protagonists. It's 95% drama for sure with this sad background of their meeting, but Dépardieu's talent makes up for occasional comic relief. You can think about him what you want looking at all the escapades and comments that were reported in the media, but the only thing that counts is what an outstanding actor he still is. He also has good chemistry with Huppert here and it was somewhat funny to watch them together in terms of proportions.
The most crucial recurring theme in the film was definitely death, not only because the entire thing takes place near/in Death Valley, but also with the story of their son, the cancer reference, the death of a marriage, very telling dream sequences and a lot more. To be honest, I was truly surprised that Dépardieu's character made it out of this film alive. I expected him to die any minute towards the end, but I guess his heart was still most intact in contrast to his bladder. "Valley of Love" is a pretty slow movie and not a lot is happening really which many voters may find unappealing, but I did not. What I did not like, however, was the reference to this strange rash, which became really important as it was also used dominantly in the final shot. This did not do too much for me sadly, which hurt the overall perception a bit. I cannot say this film had any really great moments, but it was pretty convincing thank to the one good and one great lead performance. I recommend it. If you like the actors, you will certainly not be let down.