A love story between a man and woman. And between a mother and her son. A mystical and fantastical odyssey on love.
Vallée appears content to put his audience through the emotional wringer for no discernible purpose, and the result is a film that is objectionable and ultimately pointless.
Beautiful, resonant, occasionally exasperating.
Half the fascination is how Vallee is going to knit the stories together, and for a time it looks as though he might pull off the same kind of satisfying trick as The Time Traveller's Wife. But there's too much going on here, and trying to make sense of the swirl of half-formed ideas is a chore.
This barking mad, cosmically entwined love story from French-Canadian director Jean Marc Valée (C.R.A.Z.Y. and the dreary Young Victoria) is built around such a dreadful, horribly pretentious and thoroughly offensive idea, it’s tempting to reveal the twist at the outset.
Beneath the surface panache lies an overlong, emotionally shallow study of so-called ‘twin flames’, possible reincarnation and learning to let go of love.
Disappointing, frustrating nonsense.
Even if you don't buy the fey talk of "twin flames" and the late-arriving psychic who tries to explain it all, there's merit enough in the dreamy, Malick-style compositions and a handful of terrific performances.
Remove the subtitles, and it's one of Cameron Crowe's head-in-the-clouds dramas, as scripted by M Night Shyamalan: an insultingly arbitrary reveal, preceded by vast, wailing washes of Pink Floyd and Sigur Rós. A very vanilla sky, this.
It is often hard to discern a link between the two stories and when it does appear it takes a lot of swallowing. The compensations are fine performances and some intense reflections on the casualties of love.
When everything eventually ties together, the chances are you’ll be left confused and exasperated.
Young Victoria director Vallée tackles something altogether more complex with equal flair, even if his two storylines never quite gel.
The French story is fascinating and beautifully acted, the French-Canadian one is romantic daytime TV drivel, and the links between them – mystic, metaphysical, musical – do not lead towards resonance or enlightenment.
Archly pretentious but well made.
Gallingly fractured.
General release. Check local listings for show times.