Sony Pictures Classics
I’ve called myself a fan of director Paul Verhoeven, but I’ve only seen some of his movies. The triple sci-fi brilliance of Total Recall, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers is a great resume if he didn’t do anything else, but I hadn’t seen anything else. So his latest, a weird French thriller entirely based in the modern era, was a real mystery to me. I didn’t really know what to expect. I’m still not sure what I think.
Elle comes from director Paul Verhoeven, and is based on the 2012 novel “Oh…” by Philippe Djian. In the movie, we focus on Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), the strong-willed, nearly cold-hearted head of a video game company that traffics in explicit, dark games that could be mainstream. The movie opens as Michèle is being sexually assaulted, but this is just the start of it. She begins to try tracking down the rapist, but the discovery of who it is leads to a bizarre, sado-masochistic series of events.
Michèle has a son, Vincent (Jonas Bloquet), who is a bit of a fool with domineering, pregnant girlfriend Josie whom Michèle despises. Her colleague and friend Anna (Anne Consigny) is her only real friend, yet Michèle has been sleeping with Anna’s husband Robert (Christian Berkel). Michèle also begins to obsess over Patrick (Laurent Lafitte), a handsome banker who just moved in across the street with his super-religious wife Rebecca. And Michèle also has a painted, overly surgeried mother while her father is in prison for his crimes as a serial killer.
That’s a lot to take in, but the movie doles these bits over time, setting up a series of tense moments and dramatic mysteries. The movie plays it ambiguous with sexuality and consent, keeping a lot of thoughts inside characters’ heads. Michèle is a paradox of modalities, intensely strong-willed but with a roiling set of internal issues she refuses to think about. There’s a sense of decadence throughout, with a European sensibility permeating all words and actions.
The only sci-fi concession here is the video game, but it’s pretty realistic. It has a demonic sex monster called a “Cthulhu,” and the thematic connections to Michèle’s ordeals and horrible backstory gradually become clearer. The movie revels in silent moments, ratcheting up tension as you hope for Michèle, not the best person, to fight back against her attacker. But nothing winds up simple.
The film has a lush darkness, with a style I enjoy, although it’s far from the chic gonzo of Verhoeven’s 90s action movies. At a bit over two hours, sometimes the movie drags a bit, but overall it’s paced pretty well. The ending works well too. This a dark, psychosexual thriller, so no, it’s not for everyone.
But the acting is tremendous, naturally of course focusing on Isabelle Huppert’s roiling, cold center of everything. The other actors were good enough. Isabelle has more difficult, complicated stuff to do, and she pulls it off effortlessly. This isn’t a movie I can really recommend to most people, but if “French psychosexual thriller from Paul Verhoeven” sounds interesting, I’m pretty sure this movie will work for you. Otherwise, probably not.
Elle has a run time of 2 hours 10 minutes and is rated R for violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity, and language.
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