Thursday 14 February 2013

Day 45: Love Me If You Dare



Right, so, I know I asked for suggestions for lovey films to watch today and then asked for one to be picked from the suggestions but I’m going to ignore that and go with the one I wanted to watch anyway. Notting Hill is too nicey nice for the mood I’m in, I need destructive and overwhelming, thankyouverymuch. I’m also very drunk but I’m typing like a CHAMP.

A little boy and a little girl fall instantly in love. Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard) dare each other in ever more extravagant ways with the reward always being the carousel box that Julien’s dying mother gave him. They do love each other but they can’t trust each other, which makes it impossible for them to be happy. Realising they cannot survive with this distrust but knowing that they cannot exist without the other, they drown together in cement.

He is always happy to see her but he won’t let her share in the sadness of his life. She’s jealous of Julien flirting with some girl in her class and it affects her so much she can’t even complete her exam properly. He admits to having sex with this girl and so she tells him she had sex with the gym coach. Both are trying to get to each other and it’s working well. Everyone knows how destructive they are for each other and they try to split them up. Julien’s Dad offers Sophie money to stay away from him but she won’t accept. She just wants Julien to love her but she can’t believe that he would love her outside the game. “Tell me you love me. Tell me because, if I tell you first, I’m afraid you’ll think it’s a game.” They decide not to see each other for a year and you can see she wants him to be honest with her about how he feels but he just can’t do it. He does chase after the bus shouting that he loves her, but if you can’t say it when she’s there then does it even count?

When they eventually start talking again, he tricks her into thinking he’s asking her to marry him. He’s trying to hurt her on purpose and he succeeds, she looks absolutely heartbroken. I always think loving someone should mean you don’t hurt them at all but love is different for everyone and people interact with each other in different ways so maybe hurting each other is one way of showing it, for some people. Anyway, she shows up to his wedding to remind him of the dare he accepted as a child (that he would say no at his wedding) and makes his now-wife upset. He almost lets Sophie get hit by a train. Their relationship is so destructive and dangerous.

They decide not to see each other for 10 years. Both get married in that time, and Julien has children. But all he’s thinking about is Sophie at all times. She seems absolutely impossible, like loving her would be just the most difficult thing. But clearly worth it since Julien cannot get her out of his head. Eventually she contacts him and while his wife wants him not to go off, he can’t help but go when Sophie calls for him. He pretends that he has ended up badly hurt after a car wreck and she is devastated. But she realises he is playing a game at the same time he realises he shouldn’t have done it. They reunite and realise that they cannot live without the other and that if they were to go on living then it would be impossible to distinguish game from reality, so they decide to kill themselves.

For some reason I think this is love. So unhealthy and ultimately the most destructive. But I love it.

9/10

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