7 out of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Tedious and uninvolving melodrama

Philip Concannon from London, 17th October, 2004

'Alice et Martin' starts as it means to go on with inexplicable behaviour, jarring cuts and an irritatingly pretentious tone in evidence from the opening scene. We are introduced to Martin as a 10 year-old who is suddenly sent to live with his absent father(Pierre Maguelon). But Victor is a hard and abusive father and the next time we see Martin he's a 20 year-old(Alexis Loret) fleeing home after his father's death.

He heads to Paris to live with his brother Benjamin(Mathieu Amalric) and his attractive flatmate Alice(Juliette Binoche). He's instantly taken with Alice but the feeling's not mutual. Until, that is, Martin is spotted at a cafe and becomes a succesful model(as you do), suddenly Alice falls in love with him. Life is pretty tough in Paris isn't it?

It takes us a long time to get to this point in the picture and it's hard to feel anything for these self-obsessed characters. When Alice and Martin get together and she finds herself pregnant, Martin's repressed memories of what really happened to his father resurface. We are then launched back in time for a drawn-out and dull flashback depicting Victor's death.

Andre Techine's film is so wilfully oblique and impenetrable that the viewer's patience is sorely tested. The characters are barely fleshed out, despite the best efforts of the ever-excellent Binoche. The film is also fatally hamstrung by the casting of the inexperienced Alexis Loret as Martin. The guy simply can't act, especially not a character who's supposed to be mentally disturbed. He simply stands there looking constipated throughout, delivering his lines in the same dull monotone.

Despite 'Alice et Martin' being well shot by Caroline Champetier and benefitting from a well-judged score by Philippe Sarde, the clumsy structure, banal dialogue and lack of emotional involvement make it an instantly forgettable drama. It's a long-winded slog for little reward.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Pretty vacant

A Customer from Buckfastleigh, 29th November, 2008

Forgot i had this on video, and was in 2 times whether to watch it or bin it. Should probably have binned it and saved myself a couple of hours of life. It's not that it's bad, or even awful - merely dull, in that dull dramatic drama way where too much 'story' is being told; felt i was watching something delivered in a box marked 'cinematic contrivance'. I'm not a big fan of Juliette Binoche either. About 20 minutes in the hook is: has Martin pushed his old dad down the stairs? I answered that question immediately. And for the next one and a half hours the poor lad is slowly unravelling: running away, starving; traumatised, comatised, having nightmares, breaking down;ending up in nut-house; then on to his guilt-releasing confession, and the final judgement. While throughout Alice is there; to be fallen in love with, to fight for him, to save him, to stay by him, to have his kid. 'If i hadn't met you I wouldn't exist' he says. Yes, might have ended up under the wheeels of a truck (he runs away everywhere, not looking where he's going) Coming to Paris to crash at his brother Benjamins (Mathieu Almaric yet again) he turns from hobo to poster boy to cute kid. She resists him at first, but eventually capitulates: 'If you want me, I'm yours'. Their 'love' affair isn't convincing. I didn't believe in it at all. The psychological motivation for their attraction is opaque to the point of seeming too obviously schematically contrived (so as to push all the story on) Martin comes across as a cute - but moody, immature, vapid, boy. And Juliet Binoche is as cute as she always is - replete with her own brand of pretty vapidity. Peculiar how some films don't manage to get off the screen and into your head or heart.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

What a film!

jacksonisguilty from London, 17th May, 2005

A beautiful piece of emotional cinema. Whilst the "twist" isn't quite a surprising as one might hope, the way the finale is executed is with raw emotion and great dramatic cinematography.

A must for anyone!

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

More loop holes than a string vest

A Customer from Surrey, England, 10th May, 2005

Not up to the standards we have come to expect from French cinema. The plot is weak and the interactions of the main characters seems...well out of character and at times inexplicable. Inter relations were equally hard to fathom and we spent half the film trying to work out who was related to who. There are good French films and not so good. This is the latter, save the rental and get a bottle of wine instead.

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Alice et Martin

movingon from , 10th September, 2009

Juliette Binoche is wonderful. She will prove to be an enduring actress who will be watched for decades to come.

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*** May contain spoilers ***

French Classic

A Customer from Norwich, 13th January, 2009

I so looked forward to this film. With a cast worthy of their reputations (very high), and yet the script moved too quickly allowing the audience to become detached emotionally with the male lead role. He looked over stylised and too much like an actor not a trumatised disfunctioning adult in a relationship.

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No sense in it

A Customer from Bristol, England, 8th September, 2008

I haven't seen for a long time a film that is so boring, makes no sense, characters' actions are almost all puzzling and characters themselves are utterly uninteresting. There is no redeeming thing in it. Avoid.

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