Rust and Bone seems
designed to polarise opinions. A melodramatic poetic realist romance about the
odd courtship between a mixed martial arts fighter and a former killer whale
trainer with no legs, the film is meshed together from two short stories by the
Canadian writer Craig Davidson and they don't quite fit together but it works
nonetheless. Rust and Bone is an
atypical movie from Jacques Audiard, usually a director of crime thrillers such
as The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)
and the recent highly acclaimed A Prophet
(2009). This is more like a fairytale, with its relatively simplistic storyline layered with
depth but it retains Audiard's compassion for outsiders.
Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a single dad from Belgium who
comes to the coast to live with his sister. While working the door at a
nightclub he stops Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) from being beaten by a customer
and drives her home. Neither thinks much of the other until they get back to
her apartment. Ali is impressed when he sees the photos of Stephanie training
Orcas. Likewise Ali's contempt for her overbearing boyfriend when he tries to
order him about pleases Stephanie. It is doubtful they would meet again were it
not for her accident. No longer (or so she thinks) able to do the
things she loves she phones
Ali presumably because he once showed her kindness.
There is a fairly obvious comparison between the Orcas and
Ali. Ali is a childlike brute in need of a firm hand. Though Schoenaerts
suggests there is a lot going on under this guy's skin Ali is incapable of
expressing himself except through violence. Though his disregard for other
people's feelings is often destructive it helps his relationship with
Stephanie. He has no inhibitions, it does not even register that asking this
woman who recently lost her legs if she wants to go for a swim might be a tad
insensitive. Yet this brusque approach is entirely what Stephanie needs to draw
her out of her isolation and the two form a strong bond with her even acting as
the interim manager for his street brawls.
Cotillard has spent the last few years playing girlfriend
roles in Hollywood films, albeit for prestige
directors like Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan. These films tested Cotillard about as
much as playing the eye candy in the Luc Besson produced Taxi movies, but here you can see why Audiard had no interest in making
this film without her. In her best work (La
Vie en Rose, Little White Lies) Cotillard is ferocious and she makes
Stephanie's journey back to some semblance of her former self entirely
believable whether rediscovering the joys of being in water or glassing a man
in a nightclub when he is foolish enough to patronise her.
Stéphane Fontaine's cinematography contrast the brightness
of the world outside with the darkness of the interiors. The music is perfectly
chosen from Katy Perry's 'Fireworks' to Bruce Springsteen's 'State Trooper' during
a stylised street brawl. There are moments here of sublime beauty not least
when Cotillard summons a whale up against the glass and makes it perform on a
return visit to the marine-land.
Though Audiard is unashamedly manipulative the film's ending
seems incongruous and tacked on. No sport is more melodramatic than boxing so
quite why Audiard shies away from showing any in the film's latter stages seems a shame. Perhaps he felt this would detract from Ali's transformation into a fully rounded human being or make Rust and Bone feel like too much of a
genre film but essentially what he has made is a dreamier version of Rocky, poor dumb brute improves himself
by learning how to have a proper relationship with a woman.
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