This meandering drama shares a period – the early 90s – and a theme – the impact of Aids on France’s gay community – with Robin Campillo’s 120 Beats Per Minute. But while Campillo’s approach was urgent and electrifying, Christophe Honoré’s picture is mannered, overlong and, at times, insufferably arch.
Playing Parisian writer Jacques, Pierre Deladonchamps keeps the audience and perhaps also the role itself at arm’s length. There’s something curiously unengaging about the character in whom, given the fact he is robbed of a future with the man he loves because of his diagnosis, we should be fully emotionally invested. Vincent Lacoste is the much younger Breton lover who believes that the force of his own feelings should be enough to keep them together. The camerawork is unnecessarily showy, full of swirls and flourishes, which further distracts from the central story.
