REVIEW - 'Blue Is The Warmest Color'

 'Blue Is The Warmest Color' (NC-17) ***1/2
Adele's (Adele Exarchopoulos) life is changed when she meets Emma (Lea Seydoux), a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself.

As I have said in an earlier blog post, this time of year I tend to see a fair amount of art house/independent movies that I usually don't go see.  Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad, other times they're 'eh'.  Originally titled "La Vie d'Adele:  Chapitres 1 & 2" ("The Life of Adele:  Chapters 1 & 2") this movie took the Cannes Film Festival by storm, winning the top prize by a unanimous decision.  So, with this movie being in French with English subtitles and clocking in at 2 hours and 59 minutes, what did I think of it?  Honestly I thought it was very very good, and honestly one of the better movies I've seen this year.  The two lead actresses are extremely good in their roles.  And that's another great thing about the movie:  For the most part, much like (most of) 'Perks of Being A Wallflower' and 'The Spectacular Now' it's realistic.  You can actually see these characters existing and acting this way and talking this way in real life.  Sure it's about lesbians but that doesn't take away from the realistic look at the blossoming of, and the trials and tribulations of, a relationship.

Honestly there aren't many negatives to talk about for this movie.  Despite it's running time of 2 hours and 59 minutes for the most part it never really drags, except for the final 15 or so minutes.  Some scenes could have been trimmed or cut entirely, but I'll be ranting about that later on in this review. 

I have not read the graphic novel on which this movie is based, nor had I even heard of the graphic novel until reading about the movie a few weeks ago.  Once again we have here an adaptation that I can't compare to the source material since I haven't read it.

Now apart from winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival this movie has had a lot of controversy here in the States surrounding it's NC-17 rating and the lengthy, explicit (but simulated) sex scenes.  Other critics have argued that since sex is apart of Adele and Emma's relationship than it's perfectly fine, graphically showing Adele grow emotionally in her physical relationships as she figures out who she is as a person.  Others critics concur, but at the same time they have felt that the sex scenes go on for far too long and that it goes from artistic merits to having more prurient interests.  I can understand the first group of critics argument but at the same time the sex scenes could have been edited quite a bit (with some removed entirely) and still have gotten the point across.  It got to a point later on in the movie that whenever a sex scene popped up about half of the audience in my theater started laughing.  We don't need to see EVERYTHING, nor does a sex scene need to pop up almost every 15 or so minutes and go on for a prolonged period of time.  

'Blue Is The Warmest Color' is an unnecessarily explicit but realistic look at love and relationships anchored by great performances from the two lead actresses, which greatly helps the nearly 3 hour running time go by.  



TRAILERS

'August:  Osage County' - Ensemble drama based on the play of the same name that features Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch among others.  It doesn't look horrible, just not exactly something I'd go see.

'Kill Your Darlings' - I saw this same trailer in front of 'All Is Lost'.  Once again, not exactly something I'd go see.

'The Invisible Woman' - Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes, who also directs) has an affair with a younger woman.  It looks very well made, but also looks a little dry and boring.  It looks like something I could find on BBC or PBS.

'Philomena' - The titular character (Judi Dench) goes on a journey with a journalist (Steve Coogan, who also co-wrote) to find her son who she had been forced to give up for adoption.  I chuckled a few times during the trailer.  

'Nebraska' - An aging, booze-addled father (Bruce Dern) makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son (Will Forte) in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.  If this comes to Muncie during the next few weeks I might check this one out.