Tags:
Film: Trouble Every Day
Year: 2001
Director: Claire Denis
Writer: Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessy and Béatrice Dalle
Review:
This was a film that I decided to check out as part of a horror movie challenge when I needed another film from a woman director. I’ve heard things on podcasts about this I believe, but I came in pretty blind aside from that. I was intrigued to see Béatrice Dalle in this, as she did freak me out from her performance in Inside. The synopsis here is two American newlyweds in Paris experience a love so strong, it almost devours them.
Now I want to lead this off stating the synopsis is really trying to be cheeky with giving away subtle hints as to what this is about. We start off though seeing a couple as they’re kissing in a car. It then shifts to Coré (Dalle), who is on the side of the road. A truck stops and the driver gets out, making his way over to her. Léo (Alex Descas) then arrives. He notices the empty vehicle and goes out into the field. He finds the driver dead and Coré covered in blood.
It then shifts to an airplane where we have the newlywed couple of Shane (Vincent Gallo) and June Brown (Tricia Vessey). The two seem madly in love. Shane goes to the bathroom where he has a vivid visions of June covered in blood. A stewardess knocks on the door quite a few times and he returns to his seat. The two of them are staying at a hotel where Christelle (Florence Loiret Caille) works. She prepares their room and helps with their bags.
Shane calls into a lab where Malécot (Hélène Lapiower) answers. She works with Choart (José Garcia) who refuses to take the call. Malécot is also distracted as this doesn’t seem to be the first time and she continues to do her work. It appears that Shane works in a lab back in the United States and he is trying to learn what happened to Léo. They don’t have much information for them.
At the house of Coré and Léo, we see that when he goes to work, he has to lock the doors. She tries to get out, but it is locked up pretty tight. We do see what happens when she discovers a saw under the bed. While she tries, there are two guys that try to break into the house, they’re Erwan (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and Ludo (Raphaël Neal).
What is wrong with Coré and how is Shane involved in all of this? It does take a dark and brutal turn where it will drag June into some history she had no idea about.
Now I wanted to go a little bit vague with this recap as I don’t really like to spoil things. I do have to say, co-writer and director Claire Denis did put together an interesting mystery here. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on at first, but as things piece together and gets revealed, it definitely sucked me in.
There are some interesting pieces to this puzzle. We see from the beginning that there’s definitely something wrong with Coré. The more she attacks people though, we really get an idea of the depths that she will go. Léo also makes it interesting, because as a doctor he knows that she is dangerous, but he is hiding her. He really does seem blind by love and that with his education, he can help her. It makes sense though the more that Shane digs into things.
Shane is an actually an interesting character as well. There is something that happens with him early on that I just kind of brushed off, but when I started to write this review, it clicked to me and answered a question that I had. Gallo is an actor here that I also found to be quite intriguing to use, because he’s just a weird looking guy in general. I do have to say that it definitely works for this role here. I really felt bad for June. She just seems so lost in all of this. She is newly married, in a foreign country and has no idea what her husband is up to. I really felt her despair.
What Coré has is something that I think was a misstep to not explore more. She get kind of the general back-story of how everything is connected, but that is the most interesting aspect to this film is learning about what affliction she has that would make her act the way she does.
That takes me to the pacing of the film, which if I’m honest I think it is off. I don’t mind focusing on the fact that what Coré does, as it does involve sex. We see that Shane is a pervert before that and not really showing the affection to his wife. The film just focuses more on the personal relationship, which for me is not as interesting as the virus aspect this film has. I do think there are some subtle things shown that are good callbacks for later. On the other hand, I do like seeing the sexual deviance from the norm. I’m not here to kink shame, but I like seeing that normal people can be into things that are not necessarily acceptable by society. I don’t really care for the ending, as I feel it is too abrupt for things that have been introduced.
I’m going to shift into the acting, which I’ve kind of touched on already. Gallo is such a creepy guy in his look and performance. It really works the more we learn about him in this. Vessey is someone I feel really bad for here. She loves her husband, but the neglect is hurting her. Dalle is great. She plays creepy so good and this character is right up there with hers in Inside. Descas is solid and I would say that the rest of the cast is as well. They round out the film for what is needed.
For the effects here, they were quite amazing. For the longest in this film, I wasn’t sure if this was actually a horror movie. As we get to see what Coré is doing more though, I think this film actually falls into the French Extreme movement. It gets brutal and the blood looked real. The effects actually had me cringing. I think the film is also shot very well in my opinion.
Now with that said, this film I think had some good ideas here, but didn’t really execute in a way that works for me. I’m interested in what is wrong with Coré and it doesn’t focus on it enough for me. They decided to focus on the relationships and the sexual deviance of the characters, which makes sense, but not as much as we get it. I think that makes the film a little bit boring until we get to the brutality. I wanted more from the ending as well. The acting though is solid and the effects are really good. The soundtrack really didn’t stand out to me, but it also never took me out of the film. I do think this is an interesting film to check out, but it is only a little bit above average for me.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10