Film Review
Belgian actor-turned-director Bouli Lanners has already demonstrated
his love of the classic American road movie in his first two features
Ultranova (2005) and
Eldorado
(2008). No surprise then that his third film should stay with the
road movie theme, except on this occasion his protagonists are not
adults in search of an identity but stray adolescents looking for a
home. Owing as much to Rob Reiner's 1986 film
Stand by My as it does to Mark
Twain's Tom Sawyer / Huckleberry Finn adventures, Lanners' latest
homage to the Hollywood angst movie is a characteristically mischievous
coming of age tale in which three cocksure teenage boys discover how
difficult it is to survive in the adult world. To its credit, the
film stays well clear of the kind of heavy-handed sentiment-milking and
moralising to which this kind of film is notoriously prone but is somewhat
let down by a threadbare plot which looks like it was made up on the hoof
and some superficial characterisation, a surprising contrast
with Lanners' previous film.
Before he became an actor, Bouli Lanners made a living as a painter, and you
might guess as much from the sheer visual beauty that he brings to his
film work.
Les Géants
is particularly splendid in this respect and whatever other faults the
film may have it certainly does not offend the eye. Lovingly
photographed in Cinemascope, Lanners ekes out every last drop of
natural splendour from his picturesque rural location, with the result
that his film feels like more an idyllic fairytale in some imaginary
Eden than a road movie set in the backwaters of Belgium.
The film is probably too pretty for its own good - its grand panoramic
vistas undermine the realism of the quite precarious situation the
three youngsters finds themselves in and takes away something of the
danger they should feel as they get caught up with exploitative drugs
dealers and other undesirables.
Lacking anything more than the bare minimum of a plot, that
Les Géants holds our
attention is largely down to the engaging performances from the three
lead child actors, who carry the film with remarkable ease. Of particular note
is Zacharie Chasseriaud, who is so good he
practically walks off with the film (he'd make a superb Huck Finn). The adult
actors have a
comparatively thankless task, partly because they are out-charisma-ed
at every stage by the three leads, but mainly because their characters
are the most appalling caricatures and leave nothing to the
imagination. The sequence with Marthe Keller is borderline
cringe-worthy, but Lanners' penchant for black humour gets us
through this and other similar narrative atrocities. Far less
interesting and nuanced than
Eldorado,
Les Géants is clearly a
lesser work, but it is not without charm and it manages to at least
partly redeem itself with its intoxicating landscape photography, something that
makes the film more a celebration of the natural world than simply a
modern version of Truffaut's
Les 400 coups.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
One summer, Zak and Seth find themselves alone and without money at
their house in the country. The two teenage brothers expect they will
have to spend yet another miserable summer holiday with nothing to do,
and no money to do it with. This summer, however,
will be different, thanks to Danny, another adolescent whom they meet
in the region. Together, they embark on the great adventure of
their life, one that is filled with danger. But who cares about
danger when you know you are going to live forever?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.