Le Refuge Review

• 20th Oct 2010

A tracking shot follows a young drug dealer into an affluent Parisian apartment. He sells a 400-Euro bag of heroin to a bohemian-looking couple and leaves. They shoot up and pass out. The next morning the male of the couple is found dead. This gritty introduction, replete with unflinchingly graphic shooting-up sequence, sets a dark tone, as do the next ten minutes or so, where we learn that the overdose victim’s girlfriend (Isabelle Carré) is pregnant with his child and see the deceased man’s icy mother callously demand that Carré abort it.

From this stark prologue, though, things get much lighter, as we rejoin Carré a few months down the line, now visibly with child – having not heeded the aforementioned demand she abort– and living quietly alone in an old friend’s rustic house by the sea. She is visited by her boyfriend’s brother (Louis-Ronan Choisy) and, helped by his presence, gradually begins to recover from her addiction and loss.

Much has been made of Carré’s real-life pregnancy in the film – and it certainly puts a new spin on gaining weight for a role – but it would be unfair for this to define her performance, which is excellent, bump or no bump: we see her change from a gaunt junkie, stumbling unwelcome through her boyfriend’s funeral, to a glowing mother-to-be abrim with confidence and joie de vivre. This transformation alone is compelling enough to be at the centre of Francois Ozon’s film, so it’s a bit of a shame that the director overplays the relationship between Carré and Choisy.

There’s a lot of time wasted on scenes between the pair that don’t pull the emotional strings they set out to and add little to the film. It might be testament to the female lead’s powerful prescence, but there seems little reason to care too deeply about any of other characters and this includes Choisy, whose own personal revelations seem beside the point when they arrive. Because of this, the jarring twist ending doesn’t quite work, which is a little disappointing.

Taking into account these flaws though, it’s a pretty film, made by a brilliant performance and a simple, redemptive story. Fans of the prolific Ozon, whose acclaimed body of work it does nothing to efface, will have few complaints.

Adam Richardson

Le Refuge is out on 8th November.