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MAELSTROM Send This Review to a Friend
This would be a much better film if we didn't have to view it wrapped in narrative by a talking fish. The gimmick intrudes horrendously in what presumably is an attempt to make "Maelstrom" more artistic. The story itself has sufficient interest to stand on its own without a fish turned into a Greek chorus.
Set in Montreal, the tale is centered on 25-year-old Bibi, who is a fashion designer with a stylish apartment and everything presumably going for her. But her life is empty. The men she casually sleeps with don't provide any emotional satisfaction. Things begin to go wrong. She has an abortion. She suffers business reverses. One night while driving under the influence she runs down a man who works in a fish market, an act that has its consequences in ways she does not expect, and her inquiry into the victim's world leads her to the point of attempting suicide.
When her life takes an upward turn after meeting Evian (Jean-Nicolas Verreault), to whom she is strongly attracted, there is an underlying situation that could upset everything. Marie-Josee Croze delivers a compelling portrait of the beleaguered Bibi and writer-director Denis Villeneuve fills the film with Montreal atmosphere nicely abetted by the cinematography of Andre Turpin. All this would be sufficient. But intermittently there is that pretentiously annoying poisson, with its gruff voice provided by Pierre Lebeau. An Arrow Releasing release.
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