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La Vie promise
2002 Drama
Review
Olivier Dahan’s take on the road movie begins well enough, introducing a middle-aged
prostitute and portraying her estranged relationship with her daughter convincingly.
The film has a raw edge, the essence of stark social realism, yet it also possesses an
abstract dream-like poetry which conveys the warped state of mind of its main protagonist.
Despite all this, the film doesn’t really develop and, as the road movie clichés
mount, a sense of ennui soon starts to set in. There’s a great performance
from Isabelle Huppert – made up so that you can hardly recognise her – but
even this cannot make up for the film’s killer deficiencies: underdeveloped characters,
uneven pacing and a trite narrative. Stylistically, the film has a lot going
for it; what lets it down is a grim lack of content and genuine emotional engagement.
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Director:
Olivier Dahan
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Maud Forget, André Marcon, Fabienne Babe Synopsis
Forty-something Sylvia is a prostitute working the streets of Nice. She has a daughter,
Laurence, but seems to want to have nothing to do with her. One evening, whilst
her mother is being assaulted, Laurence kills a man. The two flee, and Sylvie decides
to visit a former boyfriend with whom she had her first child. En route, Syvlie
and her daughter fall out again and go their separate paths...
Credits
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