Review of Three Dancing Slaves (2004) by Phillip M — 18 Apr 2011

I just happened to stumble Three Dancing Slaves after being in the mood to hear some people speak the French language, so I thought: why not?

And so, I went into watching this movie without any expectations about acting, or storytelling, or anything at all. I only knew that the movie centred around three brothers and their difficult lives they have to deal with. And while that is by no means an original concept, if done right, then brilliance comes out of it. There could be some great drama, acting, grit, and anything else that could be listed. Although, there was some grit and realism to it, as well as good acting, positive points don't run further than that.

The plot unfolds well enough for a coherent film and to develop characters, which Three Dancing Slaves does pretty well, but what I had a problem with were the stories. Being a coming of age story, it's hard to create something new to this genre of film. There's a formula at work even before the viewing of the final cut. We have assumptions. And usually those assumptions are correct.

Marc's section is a good opening 30 or so minutes. It establishes everything we need to know about the boys and their situation well. And we get to know how much an ass Marc can be. Is it he fault? Probably. Is he influenced by his environment? Most definitely. Marc is the 'problem child' as they say. He's the wild one, the one that is unpredictable and has chaos following along at his tail.

Overall, I think Marc's section was pretty alright. Nicolas Cazale plays crazy/uncontrollable well and it's a good set up into the next two stories. It kind of oversells that Marc is an untamed fellow, and the overemphasis of this is a little redundant and unnecessary. We're fed that he has a lot of conflict with others around him, as well as his inner struggles, but enough is enough really. His story though, is quite interesting.

Then comes Christophe, the eldest brother; the collected one, the one who's the foundation of the family, and he's come straight out of jail. If that's not a worn cliché... Anyway, the middle of the movie is usually where you can find the movie drag. The setup and end are more action-centred--although all parts of a movie should be interesting. Unfortunately, Christophe's third drags quite a bit.

Here, more of the family dynamics are explored. Their father, which we already knew from Marc, does not have the family in his control, and we see Christophe becoming the new alpha in the household. Sound familiar? While acting still is strong, nothing new is being added as a whole.

Then we get to the youngest brother, Olivier. Here, things start to get better. Olive, as Marc calls him, is able to converge the tenacity and audacity of Marc, and the sternness and severity Christophe to a nice emotionally filled point.

The softer side of the movie is shown in the last piece and it's nice. While Marc had to face unruly drug dealers, and Christophe dealt with the start of him becoming a family man, Olivier concludes us with a love-centric story. Again, it's nothing new, but after having to deal with the overly-zany Marc, and the authoritarian-esque Christophe, having an emotive, docile character thrown in is well-welcomed.

We find that all brothers are opposites, all acting and living in their own microcosms. They cope with their hardships differently, sometimes ending in a disaster, other times there is hope. Slaves depicts, what I assume is, a realistic portrayal of the hard times some families may actually have to deal with excellently. It features some good acting from the three leads, but that's about it. I give it a 4.5/10.