Never
Ever
Directed by: Benoît Jacquot.
Written by: Julia Roy based on the
novel by Don DeLillo.
Starring: Mathieu Amalric (Jacques
Rey), Julia Roy (Laura), Jeanne Balibar (Isabelle).
I
have not read Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist – the short novel that was adapted
by Julia Roy and director by Benoit Jacquot into the film Never Ever – but I
can say seeing the film that there are some novels that just were not made to
become movies. DeLillo’s book is said to contain a running internal monologue
of the main character, which the movie completely forgoes – which doesn’t work at
all in the film, because the main character is a complete blank in the movie.
If we do not understand her, we cannot understand the rest of the movie – which
is unfortunately what happens here, as Never Ever becomes a dull mess of a
film.
The
film opens with Jacques Rey (Mathieu Amalric) as a famed director, presenting
his latest film in an art gallery. Having a few hours to kill until it ends and
he has to do a Q&A, he wanders through the exhibits in the museum, before
coming across Laura (Julia Roy) – a “Body Artist” doing her routine, which
essentially seems to be moving her body slowly, drawing attention to different
parts of her body. I, admittedly, know nothing about what being a “body artist”
entails – and this film doesn’t really help clarify that much – because almost
as soon as the routine is over, Jacques convinces Laura to run off with him on
his motorcycle – abandoning the q&a and his longtime girlfriend/star.
Isabelle (Jeanne Balibar) and whisking Laura off to his isolated, rented home.
The two are quickly in love, and get married – even though there are already
some strange noises in the house. Jacques abandons everything in his life – but
after meeting with Isabelle one last time, he kills himself (or appears to) in
a motorcycle “accident”. Most of the rest of the movie is spent with Laura in
that isolated house – now with more noises – as Jacques either returns and
haunts her, or as she slips into insanity, depending on how you choose to read
things.
There
are numerous problems with the movie that fatally hurt it – the biggest single
one however is that there seems to be no real chemistry between Jacques and
Laura while he is alive. Their relationship honestly plays like the kind of
delusional fantasy older men often write stories about – where the older man
falls in love with a young woman and is re-energized as a result. But even that
reading would require there be some sort of deeper connection between Jacques
and Laura that simply doesn’t exist – if he is draw to her youth and beauty,
what precisely is it about him that draws her? Does Jacques have unfinished
business with her, and that’s why he appears before her after he dies, or is
she so in love with him that she cannot bear to not have him in her life, so
she creates a delusional version of him for herself? If the movie knows the
answer to this question, it isn’t saying – and it’s not in an ambiguous, open too
many interpretations way – the main character played by Roy is such a blank
slate for the entire movie, it’s impossible to get any read at all on her, or
her feelings.
The
film is pretty to look at. The house where most of the action takes place in
one of the beautiful, older, rundown homes out in the French countryside, and
Jacquot’s camera glides through it wonderfully. Yet, there’s a giant whole in
the center of the film – and that is precisely who this lead character is, and
why we’re spending so much time with her? What is she going through, and why
are we watching it? The film never comes up with an answer to this question –
so the movie just kind of sits there on screen, and we sit in the audience,
bored.
Note: I saw this film at TIFF 2016
and wrote this review then. The film still hasn’t come out in North America
since – and at this point, probably won’t, so rather than sit on the review, I
thought I’d post it.
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