Review of Irreversible (2002) by Igor G — 08 Oct 2009

Brutal realism.

This is the most viscerally disturbing film I've ever seen. I am left feeling raped by the director. The low frequency sound sequences and disorienting cinematography was very effective. In fact, I don't think watching this movie is unlike being waterboarded.

The finest, most brilliant depiction of human depravity, madness, brutality on the silver screen. Stuff like this threatens the moral fabric of society -- or at least exposes the fringes where the moral fabric frays and untangles.

This movie nicely, and brutally, depicts the entire spectrum of sex. Obsession over sex, serious love, animal passion. Attachment and adultery. Massive drug-induced orgies, sex for money, for obscene pleasure, pain and dominance. Violence and the terror of rape. I should add that the rape scene of Monica Bellucci is the most believable, violent, heartless rape scene I've ever seen. If I were a rape victim, I would be psychologically traumatized by the scene. Even after watching the scene, I feel like a victim. Very graphic... brilliantly done.

The film itself is done in reverse, with the ending first which is a good thing, because the ending is the sickest and would be a very heavy thing to end the movie with, but it gets progressively less maddening, slowly unraveling the reasons the revenge-induced dementia which drove the everyday, normal characters into such a bloody-thirsty maelstrom. You truly realize how fucked up the chronological ending is after getting to know how circumstance made victims of the protagonists. The movie ends (and chronologically begins) with so much peace and love. Time ruins everything.

This movie made me feel very uneasy. There comes a point where all reason breaks down due to the madness and brutality that sometimes surrounds us. Most of us are lucky not to confront that kind of barbarism in our lifetimes, but some people have to live through it. Chaos begets chaos. Minor SPOILER ALERT. This movie depicts a man passed his breaking point and in the end, his sacrifices are in vain, as he unleashes his revenge on the wrong person. The violence is out of control. The thirst for blood is irrational. But at a certain point in the movie, you understand that sometimes Captain Ahab, if I may use a Moby Dick/Star Trek reference, needs to hunt his whale. The hunt that will inevitably destroy him, but sometimes a broken man has nothing but revenge left.