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Review: It’s Only the End of the World (Juste la Fin du Monde, 2016) ★★★

<p><em>It’s Only the End of the World<&sol;em> tells the story of Louis &lpar;Gaspard Ulliel&rpar;&comma; a gay playwright who is dying of an unspecified illness&period; He has decided to return home to see his family&comma; with the intention of telling them about his impending death&comma; even though he has not seen them and only exchanged a few brief letters in 12 years&period; His younger sister&comma; Suzanne &lpar;Lea Seydoux&rpar;&comma; doesn’t remember much about Louis&comma; but still feels a strong affection for him&comma; and wishes that he would come around more often&period; Louis’ mother&comma; Martine &lpar;Nathalie Baye&rpar;&comma; welcomes him with open arms&comma; and reminisces about the past&period; She is surprised that he has never met Catherine &lpar;Marion Cotillard&rpar;&comma; his sister-in-law and wife to his older brother&comma; Antoine &lpar;Vincent Cassel&rpar;&period; Catherine is very timid&comma; and struggles to complete a sentence&comma; but still manages to form a connection with Lois&semi; whereas Antoine is somewhat disdainful of Lois&comma; and has a short temper with the rest of the family&period; The reunion quickly devolves into infighting and petty bickering&comma; and while they occasionally have moments of civility&comma; these interludes are generally fleeting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Director Xavier Dolan &lpar;<em>I Killed My Mother&comma; Heartbeats<&sol;em>&rpar; has created an interesting&comma; albeit difficult character study that attempts to wade through the mire of familial turmoil&comma; and establish petty fighting as a barrier to functional&comma; loving relationships&period; The highest praise for the film must go to the actors&comma; each of whom give superb performances&period; Nathalie Baye is perfect as the vein&comma; distracted&comma; but nonetheless devoted mother&period; She is always doing her best to ignore the issues bubbling just below the surface and keep up the appearance of a warm&comma; affectionate family&period; Lea Seydoux is the surly younger sister who just wants to move out of her mother’s house&period; Marion Cotillard and Vincent Cassel both give excellent performances as polar opposites&period; She is the shy&comma; self-effacing wife&comma; while he plays the bitter&comma; violently angry husband&period; Dolan does a fine job at directing his actors&comma; and though the script is occasionally tedious &lpar;particularly when Catherine is trying to finish a story or Louis is neglecting to comment on anything&rpar;&comma; the actors all do very well at bringing the characters to life and recreating the awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere created when family members simply can’t get along&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;924" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-924" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-924 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;IMG&lowbar;0053-300x150&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-924" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">There are times when everybody gets along&comma; but they are few and far between &lpar;It&&num;8217&semi;s Only the End of the World&comma; 2016&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; despite the interesting dynamics between the various characters&comma; Louis is one of the primary drawbacks of the film&period; Though there is nothing wrong with Gaspard Ulliel’s performance&comma; the character makes what is already a mildly difficult film to watch even more frustrating&period; Louis is the sensitive&comma; thoughtful playwright&comma; who has distanced himself from the family 600for one reason or another&comma; but suddenly returns to tell them that he is going to die&period; In theory&comma; he should be a character that we can sympathize with&comma; but he often comes across as overly self-involved&comma; pretentious&comma; and ultimately unhelpful in mending his family’s many problems&period; Rather than speaking up&comma; he often chooses silence&comma; only occasionally giving his family vague answers and excuses for his prolonged absence&period; Even when it is made clear to Louis that the rest of the family looks up to him and would like him to be a part of their lives&comma; he only seems mildly interested in making their hopes a reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ultimately&comma; it is not that <em>It’s Only the End of the World<&sol;em> is a bad film&comma; but simply a film that will probably not appeal to many people’s tastes&period; While the bickering and uncomfortable situations are not necessarily a drawback&comma; they do make the film difficult to watch at times&comma; and the lack of relatable characters makes the entire endeavor somewhat taxing on viewers&period; In addition&comma; the style comes across as a little pretentious&comma; given that the script is rather simplistic and uninterested in taking the story in a more philosophical direction&comma; though it certainly would have benefited from such a change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>It&&num;8217&semi;s Only the End of the World<&sol;em> is currently available to stream on Netflix&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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