Note: I have tried to write only in very vague terms about the film's concluding half hour, and I think I have avoided 'spoilers', but there's no way to discuss the film without indicating in a general way how it evolves. I knew nothing about the film's story arc when I saw it, and I think that was a plus for my experience, so read forward at your own emotional risk.
Not everyone responded enthusiastically to Jacques Audiard's confusing and disturbing film. It tells of a 'family' of war refugees escaping from Sri Lanka to France. In reality none of the three in the 'family' even knew each other in Sri Lanka, but now that they've used the lie to escape with their lives, they have to keep the story up. This leads to odd, sad and fascinating dynamics. There's Dheepan – a mid 30s ex soldier suffering from PTSD. Yalini is his much younger 'wife', for whom playing family, especially 'mother' is a painful and confusing prison when she dreams of a chance to become her own person. And 'their' child is a bright, sweet 9 year old orphan who was dragged into this situation without anyone asking her permission or caring how she felt. Now the three have to figure out how to survive in a violent and poverty stricken French housing development riddled with drug dealers. It's better than where they were, but far from the haven they might have imagined.
Up to this point in the story there's no question the film is a powerful and sad human tale. Almost everyone has responded to both the situation and the excellent performances. But then there's a sudden odd and violent series of twists in the last half hour, which culminate in some extremely enigmatic final images that resist neat interpretation. These are what has caused much of the mixed reaction to the film. And I can certainly understand and even empathize with those who feel the film betrays it's first 2 acts to go off in a skewed direction that defies emotional logic. But for me, it worked. There was something dream-like for me about the whole film that allowed a sudden veering into a surreal nightmare – as sometimes happens in dreams. And something satisfying about going deeper into the specific nightmare that belongs to a tortured man who killed and watched death for years as a soldier. It may not be satisfying in a conventional sense, but it sure as hell shook me out of any more common, simple 'isn't that awful' reaction to our character's plight and pushed me into deeper thought and emotion about class, violence, the scars we carry, and what we try to hide behind our masks as we fit in to societies that can be cruel and uninterested in those at the bottom of the ladder – immigrant or local.
Not everyone responded enthusiastically to Jacques Audiard's confusing and disturbing film. It tells of a 'family' of war refugees escaping from Sri Lanka to France. In reality none of the three in the 'family' even knew each other in Sri Lanka, but now that they've used the lie to escape with their lives, they have to keep the story up. This leads to odd, sad and fascinating dynamics. There's Dheepan – a mid 30s ex soldier suffering from PTSD. Yalini is his much younger 'wife', for whom playing family, especially 'mother' is a painful and confusing prison when she dreams of a chance to become her own person. And 'their' child is a bright, sweet 9 year old orphan who was dragged into this situation without anyone asking her permission or caring how she felt. Now the three have to figure out how to survive in a violent and poverty stricken French housing development riddled with drug dealers. It's better than where they were, but far from the haven they might have imagined.
Up to this point in the story there's no question the film is a powerful and sad human tale. Almost everyone has responded to both the situation and the excellent performances. But then there's a sudden odd and violent series of twists in the last half hour, which culminate in some extremely enigmatic final images that resist neat interpretation. These are what has caused much of the mixed reaction to the film. And I can certainly understand and even empathize with those who feel the film betrays it's first 2 acts to go off in a skewed direction that defies emotional logic. But for me, it worked. There was something dream-like for me about the whole film that allowed a sudden veering into a surreal nightmare – as sometimes happens in dreams. And something satisfying about going deeper into the specific nightmare that belongs to a tortured man who killed and watched death for years as a soldier. It may not be satisfying in a conventional sense, but it sure as hell shook me out of any more common, simple 'isn't that awful' reaction to our character's plight and pushed me into deeper thought and emotion about class, violence, the scars we carry, and what we try to hide behind our masks as we fit in to societies that can be cruel and uninterested in those at the bottom of the ladder – immigrant or local.