ALWAYS A (WEIRD) `BRIDESMAID'.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic Claude Chabrol's umpteenth study of crime and domestic discontent, ``The Bridesmaid'' boasts the French filmmaker's reliable atmospheric tension and cruel character observations. But this movie, adapted from a Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, (born February 17, 1930), is an English best-selling mystery and psychological crime writer, often called the Queen of Crime. novel, isn't quite as clever nor psychologically precise as the best Chabrol. It's absorbing and disturbing, but at the film's abrupt conclusion, we're still anticipating another reel's worth of development and developments. Nevertheless, two hours worth of intelligent obsessiveness, orchestrated or·ches·trate tr.v. or·ches·trat·ed, or·ches·trat·ing, or·ches·trates 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra. 2. by the maestro, makes for many a dark delight. Set in a small river city where disappearances and murders seem to occur regularly, ``Bridesmaid'' zeroes in on two unhappy homes. One consists of single hairdresser mom Christine (Aurore Clement), her adult son Philippe (Benoit Magimel, who apparently didn't learn his lesson about crazy women in ``The Piano Teacher'') and daughters Sophie (Solene Bouton bouton /bou·ton/ (boo-tahn´) [Fr.] a buttonlike swelling on an axon where it has a synapse with another neuron. synaptic bouton b. terminal. ), about to marry the hell out of there, and nose-ringed delinquent Patricia (Anna Mihalcea). At Sophie's wedding, moody Philippe meets Senta (Laura Smet Laura Smet, daughter of rock musician Johnny Hallyday and the actress Nathalie Baye, is a French actress born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, on November 15, 1983. Filmography
minute bridesmaid. She follows him home from the reception in the rain, which gives her an excuse to jump out of wet clothes right away. After making love, Senta makes it evident to Philippe that she considers him her soul mate. Rather than run away as fast as he can, he follows her home to a decrepit de·crep·it adj. Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. See Synonyms at weak. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d mansion. Senta shares the place with the tango-dancing stepmother -- or aunt, depending, like a lot of what Senta says, on what you're in the mood to believe -- whom she hardly ever speaks to. Like everyone in the audience, Philippe quickly senses that his hot new girlfriend is a little off. ``Think I'm a mythomaniac?'' is one of the self-proclaimed actress' funnier statements, though she says it, like many other disturbing things, with a chilling absence of humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was . But hey, the sex is great, and she looks just like the garden bust the otherwise reasonable Philippe has a fetish fetish (fĕt`ĭsh), inanimate object believed to possess some magical power. The fetish may be a natural thing, such as a stone, a feather, a shell, or the claw of an animal, or it may be artificial, such as carvings in wood. for. Soon, Senta has him slacking off his job, sweet-talking a plumbing contractor's unsatisfied clients. Then she comes up with the bright idea that, to really prove their love for one another, each of them should kill somebody. Echoes of ``Psycho'' and ``Strangers on a Train'' ring through ``The Bridesmaid,'' and while I and many others have long considered Chabrol the French Hitchcock, bloodthirsty blood·thirst·y adj. 1. Eager to shed blood. 2. Characterized by great carnage. blood seducers aren't exactly the stuff of original filmmaking anymore. But if you can get past predictable plotting and at least one too-obvious performance, ``The Bridesmaid'' offers some delectable arias of resentment and willing self-delusion. This may not be everyone's idea of fun, but it's certainly Chabrol's. And he knows how to have a good time. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com THE BRIDESMAID - Two and one half stars (Not rated: nudity, sex, language) Starring: Benoit Magimel, Laura Smet, Aurore Clement. Director: Claude Chabrol. Running time: 1 hr. 50 min. Playing: Landmark's Nuart, West Los Angeles
In a nutshell: Chabrol's latest thriller is moody and well-acted, but its story of a young man's obsession with a nutty girl feels unusually predictable and psychologically incomplete. In French with English subtitles sub·ti·tle n. 1. A secondary, usually explanatory title, as of a literary work. 2. A printed translation of the dialogue of a foreign-language film shown at the bottom of the screen. tr.v. . CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Benoit Magimel and Laura Smet meet at a wedding and begin a twisted relationship of their own in ``The Bridesmaid.'' |
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