Review of Amour (2012) by Anthony S — 04 Feb 2014

It's not just death that's a soul-crushing experience in "Amour"; everything leading up to it -- and yes, that means entire lives -- is portrayed as banal. Pay attention to the stories that Georges tells -- they are unequivocally mundane.

Some critics have interpreted Haneke's lack of sentimentality and obsessive dwelling on the quotidian as "searing honesty" and all other manner of trite phrases that make them feel they are part of something profound by having witnessed it.

Haneke encourages this interpretation by anchoring his camera in nearly every scene, as if to be the unflinching eye bearing witness to existence as its most cruel. Judged by marriage of theme and aesthetic, Amour is art.

But that doesn't make it worth watching. The performances by the two leads, however, do.