BEATING HEARTS
(director/writer: Gilles Lellouche; screenwriters:Julien Lambroschini, Audrey Diwan, Ahmed Hamidi, based on the novel by Neville Thompson; cinematographer: Laurent Tangy; editor: Simon Jacquet; music: Jon Brion; cast: Adèle Exarchopoulos (Jackie), François Civil (Clotaire), Mallory Wanecque (Jackie at 15), Malik Frikah (Clotaire as a teen), Alain Chabat (Papa Jackie), Benoit Poelvoorde (La Brosse), Vincent Lacoste (Jeffrey), Jean Pascal Zadi (Lionel at 18), Elodie Bouchez (Maman Clotaire), Karim Leklou (Papa Clotaire), Raphaël Quenard (Kiki), Anthony Bajon (Tony); Runtime: 166; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Alain Attal, Hugo Selignac; Tresor Films, Studio Canal; 2024-France-in French with English subtitles)
“A misguided Romeo and Juliet wannabe film that is overlong at 166 minutes.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The actor turned director, Gilles Lellouche (“Sink or Swim”/”Narco”), directs a crime drama about star-crossed lovers, that’s based on the 1997 novel “Jackie Loves Johnser OK?” by the Irish author Neville Thompson. Gilles co-writes it with Julien Lambroschini, Audrey Diwan and Ahmed Hamidi. It’s an out-of-sorts bloated l’amour fou film that lacks subtlety and good taste. It’s about a good girl and a bad boy, in a story that spans 20 years, ever since the tough working-class neighborhood kid Clotaire met Jackie, a girl from a modest family, at school in the 1980s. The hot-tempered Clotaire is played as a teen by Malik Frikah and as an adult gangster by Francois Civil. Jackie as a girl is played by Mallory Wanecque and as an adult by Adèle Exarchopoulos.
The novel’s location near Dublin changes to a northern French town that features an oil refinery.
After Jackie, raised by her widowed father (Alain Chabat) when her mom dies in a car accident, is expelled from a Catholic school for being insolent, meets Clotaire when she stands up to his bullying on her way to her new public school. Her brave action brings a spark to their relationship, and they fall in love.
As time goes by Clotaire, the school drop-out son of a worker (Karim Leklou) in the oil refinery, joins the local gang run by La Brosse (Benoit Poelvoorde). Clotaire ends up in prison for 10 years after taking the rap for La Brosse’s creepy son during an armored truck robbery shooting of the security guard at the oil refinery. Clotaire was caught when trying to revive the guard while the others fled the scene.
When released from prison, we learn that Jackie quit school and is in a loveless marriage to a dull yuppie control freak rental car manager, Jeffrey (Vincent Lacoste), who she works for. Meanwhile Clotaire turns against the gang when they refuse to pay him his share from the robbery, after he remained silent about them while in prison. As a result, he forms his own gang of ruthless thugs, becoming a real baddie, especially when he realizes he can’t be with Jackie.
The first half, even if not convincing, had an energy to it when the rebellious teen opposites fell in love. But the ex-con’s life after prison is not only unconvincing but lacks pep.
It’s a misguided Romeo and Juliet wannabe film that is overlong at 166 minutes.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 8/2/2024 GRADE: C+
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