Review of Villa Amalia (2009) by Mike V — 04 Nov 2009

I looked at my watch a lot during this movie, waiting for the payoff that just never came. The first half of the movie certainly seemed like some sort of extended setup--for what, it wasn't clear, but surely something--as we watched every excruciating detail of Isabelle Huppert's actions directed toward supposedly destroying all traces of her identity and creating a new persona for herself and running away from everything she knew. This seemed to be an overreaction to the events that took place early in the movie, and her strange behavior and off-putting persona was more or less given an explanation by the movie's end, but it was really hard to care.

There was some pretty scenery, and of course Isabelle Huppert is a fine actress, but otherwise this movie added up to a whole lot of nothing.