L'amour ouf

Or something along those lines - so no pun intended. The bad boy syndrome ... you have it here too. And you have to suspend your disbelief for a few things so the movie can work in its entirety. The old he isn't that bad - I can save him route - is our character right this time? There are some indications early on where this might lead - question is if love can move anything and if so ... how much that would be.

This tells us the story in three different timelines and we are having a bit of a back and forth. That said, it not a frantic back and forth. Also get your mind out of the gutter - this is a love story ... with some violence in a different area ... if no one believes in an individual ... well he won't believe in himself either.

It is often on the verge of cliche, but never really falls off or flat. It works quite nicely - and the actors are the ones that make it work. You will always disappoint some people with the way your resolve or "end" things, but I think this chose the best way to go ... in all ways imaginable that is. A movie for almost everyone - drama baby, baby drama.

"Clotaire" (Malik Frikah) is the school wide boy who meets his match in the younger "Jacqueline" (Mallory Wanecque) and despite their coming from opposite sides of the tracks, they start to bond. He becomes besotted with her, but rather than buy her her favourite "The Cure" album, he pinches it for her, and that's just the latest example of his petty criminality that ultimately ends up with him spending ten years incarcerated. When he (now François Civil) comes out of prison, he goes back to his old stomping grounds to get paid and perhaps to hook back up with her, but he finds that nothing he left behind is as it seems and with violence never far from him he knows that change is the only way he can perhaps be reconciled with a "Jackie" (now Adèle Exarchopoulos) who has had not had her own troubles to seek since he went away. She is now living with her boss "Jeffrey" (Vincent Lacoste) but fairly clearly for convenience rather than affection. Can there be a future for the childhood sweethearts? This is a tightly cast and gritty action drama that does follow quite a predictable story arc, but it also does benefit from four really quite impressive performances as it combines the throes of young love with the conflict brought by the sense of the hopeless felt by "Clotaire" as he starts to take the only path he feels is open to him. There isn't so much dialogue with this, which I think helps, and the 1980s soundtrack also helps give us a sense of their occasion as they mature at different speeds and in wholly different ways. It's a film that's about characters rather than their scenario, and though I can't say I especially enjoyed the fizzling out at the denouement, it's a solid feature that is worth a watch.

Gilles Lellouche's near 3-hour epic crime romance adventure is quite ambitious. For Lelouche to explore some interesting themes about crime, angsty, love, and the extremely energetic tone, it's an accomplishment of French cinema in this current times.

Lellouche does offer some great aspects about it's concept. The strong performances, beautiful colorful production, tone, and camerawork really helps establish the environment, tone and setting. Unfortunately, what prevents it from being an epic masterpiece is the writing and structure. Oftentimes, Lellouche applies too much into the narrative. It's clear what the story is wanting to express and there are some pretty good aspects about it. But with a narrative that feels unnecessary stretched out and having characters that don't feel too emotionally connectable doesn't do much service to what Lellouche would have wanted.

I do appreciate some of the ambitious take Lellouche does. The fact he was able to capture the time period perfectly and have a good pacing does show the passion. But it's style over substance moments ends up over staying it's welcome. Realistically, this movie didn't have to be near 3-hours.

The movie is about 3 hours long with some mediocre acting here and there (im talking about Malaury and Malik here, he at least has some interesting and entertaining scenes and actually resembles the acting done by his older self) but besides that the cinematography, done by Laurent Tangy, the music selection the story, the shocking scenes, the charm and warmth of certain scenes, the atmosphere, honestly make this movie a special and unique experience, if you have a significant other go watch it together, it ups the experience a whole lot more. The fact that i saw this movie with my girlfriend really increased the experience.

I was so excited about watching this movie directed by Gilles Lellouch and casted with Adele exarchopoulos and Francois Civil who I really appreciated. There is every ingredient there to make a French Bockbuster but they missed it. The first part is far too long to set the scene of their young lives and love. After a while we wonder if we did not access the wrong projection room. Plus we start feeling the frustration for not having seen any of Adele and Francois after an hour. If this 1st loooong part was intended, the movie should have been in 2 releases. Because I do think, although too long, it was a good one.

The second part of their adult life is not credible in many aspects and not enough exciting. I found the adaptation of the script rather weak. Plus I did not feel any connection with this reunion love story. As to the end it was too easy. It's a pity as I feel we missed here the opportunity here to have a great movie.

Well done to Mallory Wanecque as Jackie and Malik Frikah as Clotaire young who offer a great performance.