Rust and Bone

I'm not quite sure what I think about Jacques Audiard's contemplative character drama, Rust and Bone. It's about two damaged people who find each other, but other than that, it just kinds of plods along, with the viewer waiting for the catharsis that occurs in the last seconds of the film.

Matthias Schoenaerts is Ali, a man who has drifted to the south of France with his young son to crash at his sister's house. A hulking bruiser, he gets a job as a bouncer at a club, where he helps a young woman (Marion Cotillard) out of a jam. She's too drunk to drive home, so he drives her.

Schoenaerts will then get a job as a security guard in a supermarket, where he meets a surveillance video expert and starts to work with him. It's unclear how this is important until the end of the film.

Meanwhile, and it's a huge meanwhile, Cotillard, who trains killer whales at the local marine park, is badly injured by one of her orcas. She suffers a double leg amputation. Lonely and depressed, she gives Schoenarts a call, and they become friends. They get to talking about sex, and he bluntly asks her if she wants to fuck, just to make sure "everything is working." It does work, and the two become fuck-buddies, but when they are out a club and he leavers her alone by running off with a cute little blonde, she realizes their relationship is more.

By this time Schoenaerts is making money in illegal street fights, and Cotillard comes to take an interest in them. But eventually his actions in the surveillance business have deep repercussions.

Though this film is well presented, I couldn't help but feel a little removed from it. I think the key problem is that there is an imbalance favoring Schoenaerts, and there should have been more Cotillard (this is probably true in any movie she makes). He's just not that interesting compared to a woman who has a devastating injury doing what she loves. There's a touching scene where she goes back to the marine park and, through glass, says hello to the orca (is this the one who bit here? Not sure). The movie needed more of that, and less of Schoenaerts, who is a fine actor but is outclassed here.

And this may sound strange, but I understand why the two people fall in love, but am not clear why they became friends. One their first outing, Schoenaerts takes Cotillard to the beach, where she is able to feel free in the water. But what do they talk about? What do they share? I'm really not quite sure. It's implied that Cotillard's live-in boyfriend has left her, but does she have no other friends?

The film also leans toward melodrama, such as a scene where Schoenaerts' son falls through ice. That was a bit much in an otherwise subtle and nuanced film.

 And even though I understand how they make Cotillard look like a double amputee, it's still amazing.