Maelström

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Maelström follows Marie-Josée Croze’s Bibiane Champagne as she falls for the son (Jean-Nicolas Verreault’s Evian) of a man she accidentally killed with her car. Filmmaker Villeneuve, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an art-house disaster that alienates the viewer from the word go, as Maelström kicks off with an exceedingly silly opening stretch (narrated by a dying fish!) that establishes an atmosphere of arms-length tedium – with the less-than-enthralling vibe compounded by an often unreasonably deliberate pace and a closed-off, far-from-affable central character. And although Villeneuve has peppered the narrative with a small handful of effective sequences, including a terrific scene wherein Bibiane attempts to submerge her car and a compelling digression that follows the path of a rubbery octopus to the discovery of a dead body, Maelström builds towards a fairly interminable third act that fizzles out to a palpable, distressing extent – which ultimately cements the picture’s place as a near total misfire from Villeneuve.

*1/2 out of ****