REVIEW: The Wait

June 28, 2016

In Review, Theatrical, This Week by Cara NashLeave a Comment

“…often exquisite.
Matthew Lowe
Year: 2015
Rating: TBC
Director: Piero Messina
Cast:

Juliette Binoche, Giorgio Colangeli, Lou de Laâge

Distributor: Palace
Released: June 30
Running Time: 100 minutes
Worth: $16.00

FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth

“…often exquisite.”

Juliette Binoche and Lou de Laâge are blessed with tremendously expressive faces. For The Wait, a film which operates around the minutiae of mute interaction, suppressed expectation, and repressed grief, they are the all-important factor in the film’s favour.

Anna’s (Binoche) son, Giuseppe, has recently died in an accident. She has barely had time to grieve when his unknowing girlfriend, Jeanne (de Laâge), arrives to spend the summer. Anna is stilted and unable to tell Jeanne the reality of the situation. Jeanne sticks around, getting to know Anna, waiting heedlessly for Giuseppe’s arrival until at last she discovers the truth of the situation by accident.

The Wait is a film where not much happens, and objectively, it never adds up to as much as it seems like it should. While often visually striking, the film’s symbolism is arbitrary, and contributes little in the way of meaningful signification. Certain scenes and threads seem purposefully designed to obfuscate, in fact – red herrings that offer leadless suggestions. Nevertheless, there is still something beguiling about the film: it boasts a beautiful sense of visual mystique, and an emotional honesty in its basic simplicity. Binoche and de Laâge exhibit a synergy which sufficiently fills much of the space left by the gaps where the narrative lacks. The film plays out as much in their expressions and body language as it does in a tangible arc. It is the deep inhabitation of the characters by the actors playing them which suggests real people in a real world with real feelings, and thus renders it legitimately moving. If the weakness of the film is that the sum of its parts culminates in a manner slightly negligible, its strength is that the totality is often exquisite.

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