Two old friends bring their daughters to the coastal house they grew up around. Once there, one of them ends up sleeping with the daughter of the other and things get complicated.
The film is a remake of the 1977 film by Claude Berri, the adaptation here is done by Lisa Azuelos and Jean-Francois Richet, with directing duties going to Richet. In this film, sensibilities of the late 70s are still very prevalent, even in its 2015 version. The situation of a man sleeping with his best friend’s daughter is touchy enough as it is, but here it becomes even more so when she is only 17, legally able of consent in France, but morally iffy at best. The film paints, or attempts to paint, her as a sort of predator going after her father’s best friend until she gets what she wants. Lines are being toed all over the place and throughout the runtime when the adaptation could have easily made her a lot older, especially as the film seems hellbent on making her be the hunter and the one who pushes herself on a man who eventually just gives in. This simple change, perhaps making her in her 20s, could have avoided so many issues for the film and its themes. It would have brought it back to being about a woman throwing herself at an older man she should not and him going for it after her insistence. On his side, the man is her best friend’s father and one of those dads that is so much cooler than her own father, establishing a father figure, yet a more relaxed one, in terms of his relationship to her. This leads to him being someone of oddly represented morals. Here is a situation where were she older, she would be the hunter and he would be the hunted, clearly and easily identifiable. Here she is a minor, someone who’s looked at him as a father figure and he gives first fights her off but gives in so quickly. This also leads so issues of consent on both sides. Is he being forced into this, is she being taken advantage of? Which is which is a big issue the film dances around and never truly picks a side, adding to its issues. The ending does nothing to help those issues and themes get resolved as those who watch the film will see.
Adding to the confusion is the choices in actors and in acting. Here leading the cast are Francois Cluzet and Vincent Cassel, both playing the dads, with Cassel playing the one who crosses a line and regrets it but is shown in such a variable light. Cluzet plays the father of the teen girl Cassel’s character has sex with one night while she’s in his care. He plays the distraught father as long as he doesn’t know who touched his little angel. Again, his character toes the line and doesn’t really choose sides in the end as he doesn’t seem to truly care about the issues at end as long as they do not affect him directly or as long as they are from strangers. The whole film’s issues should influence the performances and they kinda do while they kinda don’t something hard to explain. Both Cluzet and Cassel gives great performances of course, with Cassel giving his usual amazing work to the film in a dedication that is his own way of work through any film. Playing the teen daughters are Lola Le Lann and Alice Isaaz, both giving strong performances with Le Lann being the center performance to the entire film. To make things a bit better, but not by much, the actress was 19 when she shot this so she was “of age” and considered an adult. Her acting going between innocent and predatory, back and forth, constantly, adding to the confusion about the film as one can easily forget of her age. She does show how some young women can get truly obsessed with older men when men their own ages seem so immature. Her performance is on point, adding to the icky factor throughout the film.
This story is set in an idyllic location, coastal France, in summer, when people get long vacation and time to just be and relax. The way it is all shot is absolutely stunning with an opening sequence that shows the right way to use drone shots and not overload a film with them. The opening sets a tone that is perfect for a vacation film, one where a family gets closer, one where teens see their first loves, a tone that is misleading as can be here. That being said, the cinematography by Robert Gantz and Pascal Marti is stunning, beautiful, and perfect for the location, showing it off in a way that will make some want to go visit it before the film truly gets into its story.
One Wild Moment is one of those movies that looks absolutely amazing and boasts a collection of strong performances by an incredibly talented cast but all of this gets overshadowed by the film’s themes and subject and how it is all handled. Something that may have been ok back in the late 1970s comes off completely differently in the 2010s, even more so in 2018. Granted the film was made in 2015, but still then, people were much more aware of issues and how difficult some of the ones brought to the screen were just a mere 3 years ago. Now in 2018, the film comes off as missing something or perhaps showing something that is of the wrong era.