Review of Amour (2012) by Matthew H — 23 Feb 2013

Old age is a lot of things. It's universal. It's inevitable. And in many, many cases, it's downright cruel. Michael Haneke's "Amour" is a raw, powerful look at this particular aspect of aging. And yet it's also a testament to the true power of love, and the great lengths some people will go for it. The title is actually the French word for "love," and it's as accurate a title as you're going to get. Georges truly loves Anne; there's no doubt about that. What the movie understands is that love is not always sunshine, rainbows, and happy times. Sometimes it involves hardships, sacrifices, and going to dark places. In some cases, people have limits; the film posits the question of just how far is a person willing to go for the one he loves. Is there a limit? Is there a breaking point?

I'll pause one minute to point out that the movie is in French with English subtitles. If you have a problem with this, stop reading right now. There's no point in arguing with someone who would deprive him/herself of some fantastic movies simply because they're in another language and, God forbid, you have to read. So let's get that out of the way right now: the film is foreign. It's also one of the best films of the year.

Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are in their 80's. They are retired music teachers who live a simple, but happy existence. As the movie begins, we see them attend a piano recital of one of Anne's former students, who has now become world famous. They go home, engage in pleasant small talk, and go to bed. All seems normal. But the next morning, during breakfast, Anne suddenly goes silent. She just stares off into space, completely unresponsive to her husband. She eventually comes around, but does not remember the episode. This is the beginning of the deterioration of Anne's health.

It turns out she has a blocked carotid artery and requires surgery. However, something goes awry in the procedure, and Anne ends up partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. This is when we learn that she has always had a distrust of doctors and hospitals, and she makes Georges promise that he will neither send her back there nor will he place her in a nursing home. Essentially, Georges has promised to look after her himself. This is an extremely heavy burden as Anne's condition only continues to worsen, even to the point to which she states that she does not want to go on like this. The couple's daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) wants her to be placed in a home, but Georges refuses to break the promise he made to his wife. He is determined to care for her, no matter what the financial, physical, and mental cost is to himself.

Make no mistake, this will likely be a difficult viewing experience for many people. Most of us can probably relate to the situation at hand as we may have had to watch this happen to someone close in our lives, a parent, a grandparent, a relative, a friend. The film does not handle the subject delicately; Anne's slow deterioation is painful to watch, and Georges' mounting frustration and despair is palpable. There's a shocking moment late in the film in which he slaps his wife when she refuses to drink her water. It's awful, yes, but we can see where it came from. Georges is doing everything he can to honor his promise, and when Anne refuses to drink the water, which she obviously requires, he loses his temper. It's hard enough to care for her without her intentionally making it more difficult. Yet, at the same time, we can relate to Anne too. She's miserable too, and it's hard to tell which is having the worse effect on her: the physical breakdown of her body, or the emotional burden of having to make her husband go through all this.

The film raises difficult questions and will likely provoke some deep conversation. Was Georges right in refusing to take Anne to a hospital or a nursing home? It's clear that he loves her and that's why he made the vow to take care of her himself, but couldn't you also make the argument that, if he really loved her, then he should've actually broken his promise because it would've been in Anne's best interest? There are no simple answers for these kind of questions. Georges' actions throughout are controversial and it's likely that his motivations will be called into question (i.e., Who is he REALLY doing this for, Anne or himself?). In my opinion, there's a scene near the end that illustrates that his motives were unselfish. There literally isn't anything he wouldn't do for his wife.

The lead performances are astounding. I am not familiar with either Emmanuelle Riva or Jean-Louis Trintignant, but I read that they are legends in French and European cinema, and on the basis of this movie, it isn't hard to see why. They completely embody the relationship between Georges and Anne, and they're believable at every moment. They sell the relationship from the onset (during the brief, pleasant time that we see) all the way through Anne's ordeal. Riva has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, the oldest Actress nominee ever at age 85. She deserves it; her performance is daring, heartbreaking, and poignant. That's not even counting the physical challenges the role must've entailed. It's truly great work.

As mentioned above, "Amour" is not an easy watch. It's definitely not a "feel good" type of movie; in fact, it's occasionally gut-wrenching in its raw, emotional realism. But there's also an undeniable, touching sense of beauty to it. I'm happy the Academy saw fit to nominate it for some top notch awards, including the aforementioned Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Maybe this will encourage some narrow-minded viewers who avoid foreign films to go seek this one out. It's quite an experience, to say the least.