Ferrugem e Osso

Rarely does a film use its source material (in this case, two powerfully devastating short stories by Craig Davidson) and transform it into something new and equally formidable. That, however, is precisely what Jacques Audiard has done with "Rust and Bone," a moving and raw look at how two rather ordinary people respond to extraordinary circumstances. Stephanie, a whale trainer played by the brilliant Marion Cotillard, must face life as a double amputee after a freak accident. Alain—played by the painfully handsome Matthias Schoenaerts—is a single father who must juggle his need to support his son while eking out a living for himself as a security guard. Stephanie's and Alain's lives intersect in unexpected but perfectly plausible ways, and their story generates equal parts despair and inspiration. This is an emotionally difficult but ultimately life- affirming film. And I sincerely hope that it helps catapult Schoenaerts to fame in the US. He embodies an atypical combination of ruggedness and heartfelt emotion rarely seen on film.

This Audiard film is one that grows on you. For quite some time into the film it seems both the film and its main characters aimlessly sit in their cocoon without breaking out. One feels some very vague potential in people but somehow their very lives seem the greatest impediments to its blossoming. One wonders what the film is about and where it is going. Like its characters, it feels like a bunch of loose ends aimlessly hanging about. But I must say that at the end of the movie it has grown on you: suddenly, as the story progresses, the film hatches, the characters break out of their cocoon and in retrospect one feels one has been witness to the improbable -and yet realistic- birth of an unusual but deep love story between two common people. The story has a hidden intensity of screenplay which is intensely performed by Schoenaerts and Cotillard. It creeps beneath your skin. If you like Audiard's way of developing gradual character drama with an intensity that seems to be implicit, buried beneath trailer-trash but still strongly present, you'll like this film. It's a story of how one can find anew a purpose in life when one feels like wasted trash. I watched this film in a full theatre of some 300 people. At the end most everybody sat silent for some minutes. It seems the film had touched something inside quite some of us there. Film as it should be.

Apart from the great story the movie is telling (combining two stories, male and female and their complications), this has remarkable special effects. Of course it also had a good budget to play with (for European standards that is). If they do an US remake, you can bet they'll cut off some of the edges (and some of the erotic/nude content too).

But until then and if you speak french or don't mind reading subtitles, this movie has to suffice. And it is very well acted. It's about loss, hope, friendship, love and many more things. It is about life, things we take for granted (very well shown in several scenes), passion, but also about broken people and how they try to get back on their feet (no pun intended). A great drama that I can only recommend

RUST and BONE immediately drew me in with its arresting cinematography, immediate realism, and so on. The plot is an interesting mix of qualities: compelling but unfocused, surprising but often dissatisfying. As patchy as it is, this story certainly takes you to some interesting places. Several reviewers have noted that we don't know enough about the characters to really empathize with them. I see what they mean, but I think the lack of information is intentional, and I'm not so sure that it would be better if we did know more--not because they're such terrible people, but because, you know, does it really matter in the end? The mere fact that reviewers--even those who give it only 1-5 stars--have found so much to analyze here and have interpreted RUST and BONE in so many different ways says something for the substance of this film.

Anyhoo, Ali and Stephanie are both quite real, and RUST and BONE is an interesting mass character study of people at their bests and worsts, who, though it's nothing dramatic, DO experience some change and transformation at the end, discovering what's most important to them. Stepanie's injury and Ali's love coupled with abuse and neglect of his son are vital ingredients, done with sober conviction.

Those with a low tolerance for raw violence and/or melancholy should probably skip RUST and BONE. Otherwise, it's an interesting change of pace that stays with you for awhile.

What a remarkable performance! Marion Cotillard as an actress, as an artist goes as far here as very few actresses have gone before - Total and utter truth no matter how wrenching - Maria Falconetti in The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, Anna Magnani in Bellissima and very few others, now, for me, Marion Cotillard in Rust And Bone belongs right up there among the sublime. Here I should be commenting on the film and my comment is all about her because Rust And Bone is her, Marion Cotillard. Her co-star, totally new to me, Matthias Schoenaerts, is superb as the handsome, unwitting agent provocateur. Not to be missed.