Sheesh! This tough love story starring Marion Cotillard is a hard one to sit through, but definitely worth it.
Far from your typical romance, Rust and Bone is a film with a difficult burgeoning relationship at its core. Director Jacques Audiard looks at the paths we take towards each other, the obstacles we put in our own way and the effort we put in to overcome them. And he does it through a hardened man and a broken woman in the form of an indomitable Matthias Schoenaerts and a grey-faced Marion Cotillard.
They play bouncer/fighter Ali and whale trainer Stephanie, who find each other via an act of intense violence and continue to navigate a repeated cycle of getting beaten up and trying to heal each other. Problem is, neither of them is very good at it.
Coming at the role like he's Meursault from Camus' The Outsider, Schoenaerts is stoic and worryingly nonchalant but with one hell of a temper and his dispassionate way of interacting is weirdly absorbing. He rocks up at his sister's place with his five year-old son, Sam, in tow and without thinking about things too critically gets himself involved in a scheme that puts her livelihood in jeopardy.
It's Ali's poor lateral thinking that Audiard uses to emphasise the distinct lack of affection between him and his family making this central character seem instantly disposable. But Audiard makes it clear that despite Ali's day-to day bust-ups and money worries, he can get himself laid when he needs to. After she is is severely injured at work, Ali's matter-of-fact approach to sex becomes more significant to Stephanie than Audiard prepares us for.
Rethinking her life post-injury, Stephanie is alone and depressed and calls Ali. Surprisingly, fully aware of her predicament, the dude actually comes through! But while he's being exceptionally considerate towards her, he is characteristically distant, painfully so. She's clearly but cautiously reaching out for comfort and he's giving her what she needs in measured doses before another tragedy strikes and his armour is pushed to its limits via Stephanie Fontaine’s beautifully intimate cinematography.
These two ride some rough waves made all the rougher by their inefficient, flawed efforts and watching them come together and then apart is completely captivating.
Rust and Bone is released in the UK on November 2nd 2012
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