Review of Irreversible (2002) by Wilson K — 25 Jun 2009
I have to give Gaspar Noe credit for the visual striking style of this film and for taking an interesting approach to the confounding and horrid crime of rape. However, based almost solely on the almost constant unwatchable nature of the film I struggle to recommend it to anyone other than the most die hard Foreign Art-house Fan.
The first thirty minutes are a kaleidoscope of images backed by almost inaudible low frequency sounds that were intended by the director to cause nausea and similar feelings and they do just that. It's my understanding that many people have walked out of screenings, sickened and never to return.
It may seem like I'm down on this film, but in many ways I enjoyed it. It is told backwards in a way similar to "Memento" and the passage of time between each scene is done pretty brilliantly, albeit by the use of special effects.
One of the most intriguing things about the film is that Noe throws all of the awfulness of the rape, the revenge of the rape and a five minute cab ride with some of the most racist, homophobic dialogue I've ever heard, at us in the first half an hour and then spends the remainder of the film showing us the loving, enjoyable existence that the three main characters had. This all done to show us that no matter what our fates are irreversible one might contend.
Love it or hate it, the fact remains that Noe has found a way to turn a film, that told in a traditional, linear storyline, would be banal and without any sort of social merit into something infinitely more interesting. Instead of using the revenge and rape as a climax like other, more exploitative approaches might, he allows us to view the earlier, happier moments of the lives of these characters that will soon be altered so horribly and in this I feel he has created a very unique cinematic experience.
Though, ultimately, the nature of the film its self. It's relentlessness, it's deplorable premise and it's shear manipulation make it difficult for me to praise it too highly.
This review of Irreversible (2002) was written by Wilson K on 25 Jun 2009.
Irreversible has generally received positive reviews.
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