Film Review
Jean-Patrick Benes's first solo feature as a director (he previously directed
Vilaine (2008) with Allan Mauduit) is clearly inspired by the present
economic crisis in Greece and Spain. Far from being the stuff of outlandish
science-fiction, the grim dystopian future that
Arès presents
is all too plausible. In fact, extrapolating twenty years into the
future from where we are now it seems quite likely that the whole of Europe
will be on its uppers, with unemployment in excess of 25 per cent and elected
governments replaced by all-powerful mega-corporations. George Orwell's
novel
1984 was considered far-fetched when it came out in 1948 but
proved to be frighteningly accurate. Benes's speculative peep into
the future may be even more spot on.
Arès is certainly an oddity - an extremely rare example of
a science-fiction film made in France. Unfortunately Benes had nothing
like the resources available to your average Hollywood sci-fi movie director
and so, wisely, he opted for the Ridley Scott approach, making a little go
an incredibly long way by concentrating more on moody atmospherics than jazzy
effects.
Arès looks as if it comes from the same stable
as
Blade Runner and achieves
a similar sense of stifling oppression with its imaginative photography and
design. Given a Hollywood budget, Benes would no doubt have delivered
a far more polished work, but modest as it is his off-beat sci-fi romp still
has considerable appeal - at least on the design front.
Where the film falls down is in the script department. With characters
that feel more like comicbook caricatures than real people and a pedestrian
plot that is painfully predictable, the screenplay lets the film down badly,
although the cast go some way to make up for this deficiency. The Swedish
actor Ola Rapace has a solid presence in the title role (previously he was
seen playing a mercenary in the Bond movie
Skyfall), Hélène
Fillières brightens things up as spunky cop and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
makes a wonderfully villainous company executive. The performances
do not completely compensate for the dearth of imagination in the script
but they prevent
Arès from being an outright disappointment.
Perhaps the main thing marring the film's enjoyment value is the fact that
the future vision it offers is just
too depressingly believable.
© James Travers 2017
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
By 2035, France has become one of the poorest countries in the world.
A fifth of the population - over ten million people - are without work, and
poverty and homelessness are endemic. Having grown resigned to the
misery that is all around them, the masses seek escape by watching televised
fights in which excessively drugged contestants beat the living daylights
out of each other. It is the big corporations, not politicians, who
now govern the country. One of these is a large pharmaceuticals firm
that needs a new guinea pig to test its latest money-spinning product.
Reda, a boxer and police informant nicknamed Arès, proves to be the
ideal subject - well, he is the first to survive taking the drug. When
his sister is arrested, Reda has a real-life battle to fight...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.