Bonjour Tristesse

Directed by Durga Chew-Bose, Bonjour Tristesse follows Lily McInerny’s Cécile as her relaxing summer holiday with her father (Claes Bang’s Raymond) is upended by the sudden arrival of an old family friend (Chloë Sevigny’s Anne). Filmmaker Chew-Bose, armed with her own screenplay, delivers an exceedingly (and often excessively) languid endeavor that contains little in the way of forward momentum or dramatic tension, and it does, as a result, become more and more difficult (if not impossible) to work up any real interest in or sympathy for the characters’ ongoing exploits – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by Chew-Bose’s reliance on unconvincing, eye-rollingly flowery bits of dialogue. And while Maximilian Pittner does a nice job of photographing the movie’s inviting, picturesque locales, Bonjour Tristesse‘s inability to hold the viewer’s attention even fleetingly renders its few positive attributes moot – which, when coupled with a thoroughly underwhelming final stretch, confirms the film’s place as a palpable misfire of rather epic proportions.

* out of ****