Review of Love (2015) by Dave M — 29 Aug 2016

The basic premise for this film (boy meets girl, they love, they fight, girl leaves boy, boy thinks back in regret) has been done a million times before, and much more successfully than in Love. Notably, there was a film by another French director that handled the same basic story in a way that was more innovative, less self-indulgent, and didn't make you want to kill yourself at the end. That film was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

All comparisons aside, Love is kind of a mess of a film. It attempts to handle both love and sex simultaneously, but it more often tends to handle them on two different channels, switching to gratuitous sex scenes when the love story gets slow.

That said, this film is lovingly and beautifully shot, and the emotional punch was not lost on this viewer. Noe's use of sound and visuals is characteristically striking, but he also leans (as he always does) on his characteristic use of schlockhouse material to grab your attention when his over-long film inevitably starts to drag.