Rust and Bone (2012, France/Belgium)

Jacques Audiard is my favorite contemporary French filmmaker (if you haven’t seen any of his movies, I recommend starting with Read My Lips before moving on to A Prophet, which is probably his best film to date), but Rust and Bone felt off-balance. Marion Cotillard is superb, giving a fantastic performance as Stephanie, an orca trainer whose legs are bitten off by one of her animals. The accident (it’s not quite an attack) happens early in the film, but instead of focusing on her adjustment and healing process, Audiard hones in on the dour Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a bouncer and former fighter whose damage is almost entirely emotional. Unfortunately, Ali’s character is too much a cypher, lacking the intensity of Audiard antiheroes like the hotheaded Thomas (Romain Duris) in The Beat That My Heart Skipped or the bewildered but canny Malik (Tahar Rahim) in A Prophet. Schoenaerts doesn’t have the chops to make me care about what’s happening in Ali’s head, especially when what’s inside Stephanie’s is written all over her face. Likewise, the ending is weak, relying too much on a plot contrivance to sew everything up. Still, it’s worth a watch for excellent cinematography from Audiard collaborator Stephane Fontaine, the mostly-amazing effects to make Cotillard legless, and a few transcendent moments in her character’s healing process.