Jeanne, a happily married woman with two children begins to notice unsettling changes to the world around her. A writer, she is working on a book exploring adolescence - something she almost completely missed out on due to amnesia from a car accident when she was young. At first the changes are minor, but soon everything around her, including herself, begin to go through major changes. Her family and friends don't notice any of these changes, dismissing her visions as an effect from all the stress on her to finish her latest book. What unfolds in "Don't Look Back' is a mind-bending psychological drama about a woman ultimately coming to terms with her past. While the film does initially build a nice layer of mystery and intrigue, it is ultimately undone by tepid pacing and a somewhat incoherent story. The end result of the film makes sense, but almost everything leading up to the conclusion feels trivial, which isn't good, considering that it's supposed to be a psychological mystery. While I was expecting much more from a film involving two of Europe's staples of beauty in Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci, the aesthetic of the film is definitely the best thing 'Don't Look Back' has going for it. Actresses aside, the film does a great job of using optics to manipulate the frame, sometimes vastly distorting the image, giving the viewer glimpses into Jeanne's psyche. The editing does something similar with a series of jump cuts using an an overall aggressive style which shows Jeanne's fragmented sense of reality. It isn't an atrocious film but I would essentially describe it as a rejected script of the David Lynch variety. 5.25/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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