Valley of Love
Cineplex Odeon
Feb. 6, 4:30 p.m.; Feb. 10, 9:45 p.m.
Rating: three stars
It has been 30 years since Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert appeared on screen together, and the reunion of these French cinema legends is the best thing about Guillaume Nicloux’s intriguing but flawed high-concept drama. As slight as Huppert’s frame, which contrasts vividly with her co-star’s flabby, sun-baked physique, Valley of Love casts them as a divorced couple of famous French actors who reunite in California’s Death Valley. They are fulfilling a peculiar request made in letters to each of them by their son Michael, who, despite committing suicide six months earlier, promises they will see him again on a specific date in November. Nicloux extracts fine performances, particularly from Depardieu as the skeptic who unabashedly accepts his dissipated state. The rapport between Depardieu and Huppert as his mournful wife is complemented by the director’s playful swipe at celebrity culture and his evocative portrait of the arid landscape this grief-stricken couple is trapped in. While there is at least one trippy moment that recalls Don’t Look Now, it will be difficult for all but the most open-minded viewers to buy the mystical subtext.
Ratings are out of five stars.