Yesterday evening, I saw this film at a premiere in the presence of the actor
Matthias Schoenaerts, the director
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, the producer
Alain Goldman and part of the film crew, within UGC Les Halles, in Paris.
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and
Alain Goldman briefly mentioned the manifold difficulties dealing with the making of a first film abroad. Women in the audience were clearly under the spell of
Matthias Schoenaerts who behaved like he was himself under
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's spell.
Without unduly spoiling the script, Roman Coleman (
Matthias Schoenaerts) is incarcerated for aggravated violence. After a decade in prison, most under total isolation, he has the opportunity to benefit from a rehabilitation program involving the training of wild mustangs. But before controlling a wild animal such as a mustang, first you must be able to control yourself. And that's definitely the point. Thus, we see Roman (the prisoner) and Marquis (the mustang) taming to each other, as the fox and the little prince (
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943).
The script is predictable and the taming phase is described as elliptically as naively, but we can easily cope with this secondary observation. Moreover, the cast is excellent, the Belgian actor
Matthias Schoenaerts enjoying a legendary charisma and a remarkable aura. He is also perfectly seconded by
Jason Mitchell and
Bruce Dern. In fact, I was particularly moved by the message of hope transpiring throughout the entire film, a prison being generally reduced to the single status of « let's hide the dust under the carpet », that is to say that as long as the scum is in jail, the society will feel better (it is certainly a plus) but without really worrying about the after-jail (that's weird, isn't it?)
As a synthesis: a lovely tale brimming with beneficence, philanthropy and humanity. 7/8 of 10.
