[rating: 4/5]
The opening sequence of “Rust and Bone” may feature a small child who appears to be in a deep slumber but make no mistake, this movie is fueled with enough (or maybe even more) blood, tears, and sex, which leaves audience members wide awake.
Blood and tears aside, “Rust and Bone” is a movie about redemption and relationships. However, what makes the film complicated are the characters involved, each of them trying to redeem themselves and make life just a little bit easier. The characters are put through their personal hell and just when you think, “enough is enough,” more drama unfolds.
At the beginning of the film, audiences are introduced to Ali, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, and Armand Verdure, making his film debut playing Ali’s five-year-old son, Sam. The father and son duo move in with Ali’s sister, Anna (Corinne Masiero) and her neatly arranged stacks of stolen expired food. When Ali, a kickboxer at heart, lands a job as a security guard and bouncer, he meets Stéphanie. Played by the brilliant Marion Cotillard, Stéphanie is an Orca trainer who exudes wit and sensuality.
When a freak accident results in Stéphanie’s legs being amputated, she calls on Ali to help her get through her depression while Ali calls on her for motivation and management in his fights.
The story itself may seem familiar to fans of “The Fighter” or “The Wrestler” but what sets this movie aside (other than the Orcas dancing to Katy Perry’s “Firework”) are the raw performances given by every actor, leaving audiences members cringing at the sound of a bone breaking or gasping at a character’s vulnerability.
Hats off (or rather, legs off) to Cotillard who commands the screen with either a simple grimace toward the sunlight or her scrambling in bed, desperate to call a nurse upon discovering her amputation while repeatedly sobbing, “What did you do with my legs?” It was a delight both visually and emotionally to see her transform before audiences’ eyes from a gaunt and empty woman to a woman who suddenly sparked with life as Perry’s “Firework” plays in the background.
Schoenaerts does an excellent job of portraying a man one would want to root for and at the same time, jeer at. He presents Ali as a more brawn than brain kind of guy, who hits his son, causes his sister to be fired, dishonestly earns money and takes calls for sex. When his life seems to be falling apart toward the end, he abruptly abandons his family and leaves to go and train for boxing. His stupidity and lack of responsibility is almost easily forgiven when he uses his fists not for money or to express his anger but to attempt to save his drowning son by punching through a thick sheet of ice.
And when the camera is not focused on its actors, it captures the simplicity of the setting and the details that add to the feel of the movie, whether it be Sam’s orange jacket against the snowy white landscape or a bloodied tooth on the ground. The director, Jacques Audiard, makes use of different camera angles such as the back of Stéphanie’s bun while she talks to Ali or the whales moving in slow motion underwater, giving audiences a different point-of-view even if it is just for a few seconds.
It is the director’s camera tricks and the actors’ brutal and beautiful performances that keep this French film from being lost in translation.
