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Review by: Graeme Kay | Rating:
One
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Theatrical trailer; Cast and crew filmographies;
Making of documentary; Cannes featurette.
MICHAEL Haneke follows up his critically acclaimed, The
Piano Teacher, with a ponderous piece of pseudo sci-fi nonsense,
that gets nowhere, very, v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
When Anne (Isabelle Huppert), her husband and two children arrive
at their country home, they are most surprised to find it occupied
by a gun wielding maniac, with his own wife and child in tow.
Within minutes of arriving Anne is a widow, the trigger-happy
squatter having offed her hubby.
Anne and the kids are then left to their own devices as they
wander through some unidentified region of France, that seems
to have been caught in the grip of an unspecified natural catastrophe,
trying to get help from the locals, who are desperately short
of food, water and sympathy.
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Of course, we are supposed to care about the plight of this unfortunate
trio and the characters they meet on their way, but they are all
so poorly drawn that we never do.
The problem with Haneke here is that he seems to be as directionless
and lost with the subject matter as most of his cast.
The narrative never flows, characters we can warm to are never
found, and the drama and the dialogue are patchy and unconvincing.
Okay, it may be a realistic depiction of post-apocalypse society,
but it’s boring as hell.
Even at the end, we have no clear idea what has happened to throw
this particular region of France into such turmoil.
Nor have we any idea what insights into the human condition Anne
and her brats have gained from their experience.
Le Temps du Loup? Le Temps de la Turquie, more like!
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