Review of Rust and Bone (2012) by Nightreviews — 21 Feb 2013

Sometimes, the most memorable moments in life; the most life lasting encounters you make and the people who affect your life the most, are presented to each person at the most unusual moments and rather misunderstood times. Life is a plethora of unknowns; a catalogue of mysteriousness and uncertainty. Jacques Audiard’s newest film attests to these simple yet rather complicated notions. Rust And Bone is plagued with beautiful instances of utter truth and stark realities.

Based on the short-story from Canadian author Craig Davidson, the film introduces us to two simple yet complex characters.

Ali Van Versch, played with such force and acting momentum by the dazzling and captivating newcomer Matthias Schoenaerts, is a broke and down to his luck single father. After arriving in Antibes with his son Sam (Armand Verdure), Ali stays with his sister Anna (Corinne Masiero) and her partner, who are both struggling to make ends meet. Without any money or a job, Ali soon finds employment as a bouncer at a local club; a position he was able to attain quickly given his experience as a kick-boxer and his passion for fighting. Stephanie, played by the always impressive Marion Cotillard, is a killer whale trainer and sea-mammal enthusiast.

While breaking a fight, that leaves Stephanie on the bloody end of a fist at The Annex, the club Ali works at, turns into a chance meeting that will change both Ali and Stephanie’s life forever. Disoriented and alone, Ali offers to drive Stephanie home. After the night at the club and meeting Ali, Stephanie returns to work.

The next day, tragedy strikes at Stephanie’s workplace, leaving Stephanie’s world unravelling and crippled—crippled of her passion, crippled of her vigour to live and crippled of her beauty. Unable to deal with Stephanie’s disfigurement, many of the loving people in Stephanie’s life have now disappeared, including her boyfriend. In an act of desperation and impulse, Stephanie calls Ali. Ali, a rough, tough man whose experiences inside the fighting ring and in life, treats Stephanie as if nothing about her has changed at all. Together, the two begin a fantastically revealing and life-changing journey together. A harrowing tale of chance and love, Rust and Bone is the anticipated film following Jacques Audiard’s festival wonder Un Prophète. A stark difference from his previous effort, Auidard opted for the colourful and flaring images of France compared to the grey and cold confines of a prison. Rust and Bone is a film that has no limitations, and if it does, it is shadowed by Audiard’s confidence as a filmmaker. Exploring all the beauty and wonders of the small marvels around us, the film is a refreshingly free cinematic breath of fresh air. Saturated with colourful and grainy montages of beaches, sea-life and water, Cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine does everything in his power to make Rust and Bone a natural visual spectacle.

Lead by two of the most physically powerful performances of 2012, both Cotillard and Schoenaerts’ bring a power to their characters that change your perspective of them, even in their faults. What begins as a friendship, and Ali’s successful attempts to reconnect Stephanie to the beautiful world around her with small acts like: swimming, unemotional sex and strolls along the sun-kissed beach of Cannes, turns into something more. The two begin a love affair, although their relationship is anything but romantic. Rusted with hurt in their hearts and frail by the world around them, the two begin a courtship. Both characters are broken physically. Whether it be Stephanie and the loss of her two legs, or Ali, and his persistence to chase his passion of fighting within the French-Underground world of street prize-fighting, the two characters heal each others pains, both emotionally and physically. Surrounded by pain and hurt, Rust and Bone allows for every colour—every drop of blood to appear more viscous; every solar flare to appear more sun-kissed and every emotion on screen, to resinate with the audience.

Rust and Bone is a fantastic film with overlooked performances. Schoenaerts, who is on my list of actors to watch rise in the next few years, was a personal favourite staple of the film. His chemistry and rawness was the binding factor that interconnected the beauty of France, the elegance of Stephanie and the brutal reality of the economic situation of France (and Europe as a whole), and the attempts of fragile everyday people, trying to overcome it. As the film fades to white and the credits role, Rust and Bone is a long-lasting and hopeful account of everyday people presented with the ability to be the best versions of themselves, as long as hope and acceptance endures.