User Reviews

"Icare" is a French/Belgian co-production from 2017 written and directed by Nicolas Boucart and his work here received some solid awards attention, a.o. made it on the Oscars short list, but eventually did not manage to score the nomination. It would have been an okay nominee I guess, not a great one, but not really undeserving either. It runs for 27 minutes and includes only three cast members, two boys and a man. This man has the idea that it is possible thatg man can fly and therefore he recruits young boys to pursue his bizarre idea, even if it may cost a life or more. I must say I never really understood the purpose of the older boy. Was he a former "prototype"? But still I feel something would be missing without him too, even if his story is not as crucial as the one of the other two characters. And with that I am not (only) talking about the final sequence, where we see him jump off too. Initially I thought it would be a majestic flight à la Birdman (what Stone sees), but it is most likely the opposite as the ending credits roll in before we find out. As for the grown-up man's fate: He does not seem any luckier with his boat probably being full of water and drowning at some point. I was still surprised he left. I thought he could have been loose enough mentally to keep going and still try it again with the older boy. Or find a new victim. But maybe this is the sense of the story, that the old man was not completely insane. We will never know. There are more mysteries that are not explained in here like why these two boys. What is their connection with each other and the men. Are they held hostage? Maybe the younger one actually being convinced by the man he is part of something groundbreaking? I found it somewhat interesting the really very simple plot worked for almost half an hour without getting bored, but this may also have to do with this film at least being as much about the atmosphere on these cold isolated cliffs as it is about the mere story line. Overall, a good but not great watch. I recommend watching it. By the way I think it is not essential to understand the rare dialogs in here to understand the movie. You can enjoy the watch if you don't speak French too, even without subtitles. But if you got a good set in your native language, then use it of course.