Elle (2016)
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Elle Movie Review
Elle is a 2016 French psychological thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Isabelle Huppert. It is such a difficult, very frustrating movie.
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“A woman who’s read:
“The Second Sex” will chew you up… And spit you out“
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It is about a businesswoman who gets raped by an unknown assailant and stalks him back. First, let’s just say that I really enjoyed the first half of the movie, especially the first third or so. It was very intense and sometimes genuinely creepy, but never done in a disgusting manner and they never crossed the line which I appreciated. It started off so good that I really had big hopes for it.
But everything changed in its infuriating second half. The film became so transgressive, violent and just so frustrating both in its character decisions and a message or a lack of it to be exact. There are a lot of unrealistic and totally ridiculous plot points to be had here. First, you have the fact that she never called the police despite being raped. What sane woman would go after the assailant on her own?? That was absolutely ludicrous.
Then you have her casually flirting with the guy who eventually turns out to be the criminal himself in a very obvious twist. Why would she do that when she should watch out for all men around her boggled my mind. But then the biggest offender goes to her eventual decision to not turn him to the police and allow her to be raped once again. She is such an awful female character and a terrible role model.
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Elle is definitely well made and its dramatic and even creepy tone leads to a lot of intense moments. It succeeds as a solid, investing thriller in the first half, but then it goes to full ridiculousness in a typically annoying psychological thriller fashion and it becomes this very dated and obviously silly movie that seems to have come out in the nineties instead of today. It is well directed and acted, but for all of those reasons stated above, I was frustrated and it disappointed me immensely.
Elle is very well acted and directed with a terrific and intense first third, but it nonetheless ended up being such a frustrating experience and a typically silly psychological thriller. The film is so implausible and even just plain ridiculous in many of its plot points and so transgressive in its very unfortunate, terrible female character that it infuriated me.
My Rating – 2.5
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