A+ Pollux (2002) - film review

True love, when it comes to 30-something translator Halvard Sanz, arrives suddenly and with a wild intensity.  The incomparable Pollux walks into Halvard’s dreary life just as she is putting a brutal end to one amorous relationship.  From that first meeting, Halvard knows that Pollux is his soul mate – but she disappears from his life just as suddenly as she entered it.  Ditching his current girlfriend, Halvard drives himself into a mad frenzy as he tries to track Pollux down, so that he can share the rest of his life with her.  Alas, could this be a wild goose chase...?

Before turning his hand to film directing, Luc Pagès had earned a solid reputation as a cinematographer, working on such films as Eric Rohmer’s Conte d’hiver (1992) and Jacques Maillot’s Nos vies heureuses (1999).   A+ Pollux marks his directorial debut, a dazzlingly original romantic comedy-drama starring the talented cult actor Gad Elmaleh.   Whilst the narrative feels slightly insubstantial and the visual style is at times excessively arty, it is nonetheless an engagingly quirky little film, offering a thoughtful reflection on the transience and haphazard nature of romantic love. It may not achieve the awesomely devastating poignancy of, say, Manon Lescaut, but it is a lot funnier.

© James Travers 2008

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