Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: GENTLE MONSTER [Toronto International Film Festival - Toronto, Ontario]
The breakdown of family and the ties that bind (but also the truths or half truths that are buried) lie at the center of “Gentle Monster” [Special Presentations] written and directed by Marie Kreutzer (who made "Corsage" with Vicky Krieps) and starring Lea Seydoux as Lucy Weiss whose life is thrown into turmoil when her husband is accused of a severe crime. The way the narrative plays out it is clear what he is accused of but the details and truths are a bit sketchy (on purpose). The film is about Lucy coming to terms with who her husband is, what he is capable of and what the circumstances are. More interesting character wise is how she processes, deals with the societal context and tries to see the details and trigger that affects her, her life and her son. Everyone seems happy at the beginning of the film but as it moves forward, the cracks whether it be the finances or career just become red herrings of a bigger problem. It becomes about protection but also about probable cause versus true intent.
Laurence Rupp plays her husband Phillip who is both tragic but also a villain of course. She loves him but she cannot. This is a very interesting dynamic that is well created but the one between Lucy and her mother (played with a coolness but also a love with a certain distance by Catherine Deneuve) is also quite complex and pronounced. Expectation versus reality is a very real theme here in how they deal with the problem at hand. Jella Haase plays a investigator focused on the importance of work but not beyond her own problems. Having spoken to her at the fest a day before for the film "Krux", which is very different (though it deals with societal perception of a different time), it is interesting to watch her perspective here. At the Q&A, Seydoux talked about seeing Haase's eyes come through the doors on the first day they met which is when a warrant is served on Seydoux’s husband. It is a tricky balance because it is about perspective but also perception. Kreutzer also says that Haase is a decent sized star in the German space which is great to hear (since North Americans might not know that). “Gentle Monster” is not a movie for everyone and it deals with dark but pertinent subject matter. Seydoux brings an inherent humanity to her character where it is about choice but also about finding the right path to find light again. 84%/B
By Tim Wassberg
