Review of Rust and Bone (2012) by Tibor B — 08 Mar 2013

A good example of a film that simply tries too hard. It's like two disparate stories crowbarred together (which it basically is, from short stories by Craig Davison). On one side is Ali, a young single father who takes up violent underground boxing having arrived in Antibes to live with his sister.

This side of the story is told well, with a Dardennes brothers' style and a restrained performance by Schoenaerts. The other side of the story is Stephanie, a killer whale trainer (of all things!) who loses her lower legs in a freak accident during one of her shows.

Their paths have crossed before, a spark of mutual attraction thwarted by Stephanie's unhappy relationship, the young woman having a touch of self-destruction from the start. Cotillard is magnificent in a difficult role, capturing all the possible nuances of emotion of a newly disabled young woman.

The two characters find a believable connection, a sort of playful companionship with a fuckbuddy twist. From this point things start to get less plausible and more like narrative contrivance. Ali is oddly unsympathetic in his no-strings approach to Stephanie, so there is too little to make us believe it blossoms into "love".

I've never seen a paraplegic sex scene before, and to be fair Audiard approaches it objectively and like any other, let's be fair, tiptoeing round it would be the offensive approach. The narrative contrivances keep growing though, until a frankly manipulative climax involving Ali's young son and some thin ice.

At this point, despite the films many strong points and performances, I found myself giving a groan of disappointment and the happy family ending feels trite.