list.co.uk/fi lm Reviews | FILM
EROTIC THRILLER L’AMANT DOUBLE (18) 108min ●●●●● ROMANTIC DRAMA THE BOOKSHOP (PG) 113min ●●●●●
BIOPIC MARY SHELLEY (12A) 121min ●●●●●
François Ozon’s L’Amant double comes as something of a shock after his delicate handling of period drama Frantz. It is a heavy-handed affair in the mould of the lurid, psychosexual melodramas that were a Hollywood staple around the time of Basic Instinct. Loosely based on Joyce Carol Oates’ Lives of the Twins, it i nds former model Chloé (Marine Vacth) troubled with stomach pains that could be psychosomatic. She consults psychiatrist Paul (Jérémie Renier) and is soon seducing him. Although they become an item, he is elusive about his past and unwilling to discuss his family. It is Chloé who stumbles upon the fact that he has a twin brother, Louis (also Renier). Consulting him, she i nds a bolder, more imperious i gure who favours a more 'hands-on' approach. Stylish in its execution, L’Amant double seems determined to provoke, and Ozon i lls the screen with sex. However it tips into farce, with the addition of a sinister neighbour, creepy cats and scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Mel Brooks spoof. The cast are game and there are pleasures to be had, but they are not enough to overlook the preposterousness of a i lm that feels like the dying gasp of a genre best left in the 1990s. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 1 Jun. Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel The Bookshop gets a loyal adaptation from Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet, with a film that celebrates love and literature. Underneath what appears to be another quaint English period tale, beats a subversive heart. Perfectly cast Emily Mortimer plays war widow Florence, who arrives in a 1950s Suffolk seaside town to open a bookshop and stir up the staid lives of the locals. Florence’s enterprise brings her in direct conflict with Violet (Patricia Clarkson), a socialite who has designs on the property, wanting to turn it into an arts centre. Moreover, Florence’s choice of books sets tongues ablaze, not least when she stocks the controversial Lolita, a text even she’s uncertain of. Her one supporter comes in the shape of Mr Brundish (Bill Nighy), a widower and recluse. Coixet handles their burgeoning not-quite romance with a real tenderness. Like a modern day Brief Encounter, it’s a film of unspoken sentiment contained within glances and gestures that, thankfully, never descends into mawkishness; while Clarkson just manages to keep a lid on her villainous character. Restrained, but never overly so, The Bookshop deserves plenty of custom. (James Mottram) ■ General release from Fri 29 Jun.
The wild imaginings that sparked the creation of Frankenstein inspire a more sedate literary biopic in Mary Shelley. The second feature from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour i nds common ground with her debut Wadjda, depicting Shelley as a rebellious woman i ghting to make her presence count in a male-dominated society. Elle Fanning’s Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a mature 16-year-old with a taste for the macabre and a desire to write. A meeting with radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth) convinces her that she has met her soul-mate. His words are a provocation and his poetry an assault on her senses; she is emboldened to defy her dourly disapproving father William (Stephen Dillane) and begin a new life with Shelley. Rebellion runs in the family, as her stepsister Claire (Bel Powley) attaches herself to mad, bad Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge).
An unassuming period drama that unfolds in gloomy rooms and boggy landscapes, Mary Shelley is solidly crafted and absorbing. Fanning sustains a fairly convincing English accent and the British cast seem at home among the i nery and eccentricity of their roles. It just feels a little too tasteful to make the subject really come alive. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 6 Jul.
DRAMA IN THE FADE (18) 106min ●●●●●
Shining a spotlight on the under-acknowledged threat of far- right terrorism, this devastating drama from German director Fatih Akin (Head-On, The Edge of Heaven) sees a woman felled by unimaginable loss summoning the strength to survive an aftermath that continues to inl ict trauma. When her Kurdish husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and young son Rocco (Rafael Santana) are killed in a nail bomb attack in Hamburg, the anguish felt by Katja Sekerci (Diane Kruger) is amplii ed by a police investigation which insistently focuses on Nuri’s criminal past. Her suspicion that the incident was racially motivated is ultimately borne out by the arrest of a neo-Nazi couple, forcing her back from the brink. As Katja moves through her initial grief to the agony of the trial
and beyond, the i lm adapts accordingly. While her suffering is captured with subtlety, Akin and co-writer Hark Bohm lay out the machinations of the legal system in stark, excruciating detail when Katja faces the perpetrators and particulars of the hideous crime. The winner of Best Actress at Cannes 2017, Kruger tackles her meatiest role yet. Her devoted stay-at-home mum is a punky former drug-user who has lapsed back in her grief; she i nds herself under scrutiny as the i lm highlights how poorly the law can serve those who don’t present as stereotypical victims. The closing credits list an eight-year campaign of racist violence
by the National Socialist Underground, giving the i ctional story real-world weight, while Kruger’s outstanding work as Katja – by turns bewildered, determined, despairing, noble and haunted – ensures it cuts deep. In the Fade is an unashamedly brutal but equivalently compassionate portrait of all she must endure. (Emma Simmonds) ■ General release from Fri 22 Jun.
1 Jun–31 Aug 2018 THE LIST 83