Laurence Anyways

"L'amour fou" continues to preoccupy I Killed My Mother writer/director Xavier Dolan in his wildly ambitious third feature. A beautiful and typically self-indulgent melodrama, this Cannes prize winner both showcases and squanders the 23-year-old's considerable talents. It explores the obsessive, 1990s relationship between Montreal teacher Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) and his volatile girlfriend (Suzanne Clément), after he announces he wants to live as a woman. Poupaud and especially Clément's unaffected performances anchor the overlong film, their intimacy emphasising the simplistic central point that it's the person inside, not outside, that counts. But it's an unfortunate script flaw that you only feel the raw emotion of the lovers' turbulent, decade-spanning journey in a few, admittedly exceptional, scenes. More commonly, events seem detached and superficial, with Dolan too caught up in demonstrating how hip and culturally savvy he is to delve sufficiently into his complex themes. Consequently, as in his previous film Heartbeats, his symbolism-heavy visuals are his ultimate triumph, boasting music video-style flourishes that complement his atmospheric period pop soundtrack.