La Ligne droite (2011)
Directed by Régis Wargnier

Film Review

La Ligne droite starts out with the noblest of intentions and has you thinking it might be a subtle allegory of some kind, but the first reel has barely runs its course before the film plummets to the depths of a trashy Australian soap opera and leaves you shaking your head in despair.   The central story strand, involving a young man battling against insurmountable odds in the pursuit of his goals, brings to mind Régis Wargnier's earlier film, Est-Ouest (1999), but whereas that film succeeded in presenting a far-fetched personal crusade as compelling drama, in his latest cinematic offering Wargnier merely turns out the soppiest kind of melodrama, one that contains scarcely a note of authentic sentiment.

In Frédéric Mermoud's Complices (2010), Cyril Descours was revealed to us as an actor of considerable promise, a name to watch out for.  As the blind hero of Wargnier's lame homage to Chariots of Fire (1981) (which comes complete with obligatory over-use of slow-motion and excessively lachrymose music) he is complete wasted.  Descours's presence is just about the only thing that La Ligne droite has going for it - the actor does what he can with the risibly bad script, but even Robert De Niro would have had difficulty with some of the dialogue that Wargnier flings at his leading man.  Rachida Brakni may not be in Descours's league, but her performance likewise occasionally rises above the overall mundanity of the production, alas not enough to save it.

The script is as steeped in contrivance as it is in cliché, but this wouldn't have been so bad if Wargnier had at least made an attempt to direct the film with some sincerity, instead of trundling out such low grade trash and trying to pretend that it is something better.  La Ligne droite first goes awry when the two main characters meet and implausibly form an instant bond of friendship.  It's not sufficient that the scene is badly scripted and acted with no conviction whatsoever; Wargnier has to direct it as if he had no idea what a film camera was for.  Thereafter, things just go from bad to worse.

Brakni's character apparently has an infant son from an earlier relationship and naturally the father (Grégory Gadebois - another fine actor despicably wasted) wants to keep them apart.  Descours's character, it transpires (big yawn), has deep-rooted emotional problems (as if losing your sight in a car crash wasn't enough trauma to be going on with), which prompts another character to try to fix him up with a prostitute (cue even more treacly music than you can bear).  And when Descours starts to show his true feelings for Brakni, she suddenly dumps him by the roadside and drives off, in the certain knowledge that he will be mowed down in the traffic.  Exactly which planet is this film supposed to be set on?  

There is scarcely a scene in La Ligne droite that rings true, and there are many scenes that are so outrageously phoney that you just can't help laughing, particularly when the principals start overacting and the music swells to a schmaltz-laden crescendo of sanity-threatening proportions.   Imagine the monstrosity that you'd get if the worst bits of Wargnier's Oscar-winning horror Indochine (1991) were all spliced together - even that terrifying prospect of undiluted mediocrity would be easier to sit through than the cloying disaster that is La Ligne droite.

Film Synopsis

Not long after she is released from prison after a five year stretch, Leïla meets Yannick, a young athlete who has recently lost his sight in a car accident.  Apparently undeterred by his disability, Yannick is determined to continue his career and is in training for a competition.  In her not too distant past, Leïla was also an active sportswoman and she agrees to help Yannick in his training, although she remains strangely reticent about her past.  Despite their differences, a bond of friendship and trust develops between Yannick and Leïla, and it seems they are well-placed to help the other overcome the challenges and upsets that lie ahead...