Review of Irreversible (2002) by Lee R — 18 Sep 2010

While Irreversible is a very good film, Its not the kinda film you could call enjoyable. Telling a Rape revenge story by starting at the end and working its way back scene by scene to the beginning is a nifty way of giving such a bleak story some kind of happy ending.

At first the camera work annoyed the shit out of me, Director, Gasper Noe controlling the camera like a psycho Sam Raimi with parkinsons. However as the story winds back to calmer times the camera settles down and this works well.

So anyway, the story starts with a mans frantic search for a guy called the Tapeworm, a man he believes responsible for the brutal rape of his girlfriend. He soon finds The Tapeworm in a gay S&M bar called the Rectum, (honestly, you couldnt make this up).

This leads to a brutal retribution involving the best use of a fire extinguisher I have seen. Then time rewinds to the scenes previous, the hunt for the man responsible, back to the rape and then all the way back to the previous day.

Its an effective trick once you get used to it. Like I said before, its a very good film but hardly enjoyable and possibly best avoided by anyone who suffers from motion sickness.