Dans Les Villes

One can’t help but wonder just who Dans Les Villes has been crafted to appeal to, as writer/director Catherine Martin has infused the movie with an unreasonably slow pace and an underlying sense of pointlessness. The story revolves around several thoroughly miserable characters as they attempt to get through their day-to-day lives. Martin kicks the proceedings off with an interminable sequence set inside a museum, and it’s all downhill from there. The filmmaker seems to have a certain amount of disdain for her audience, as she’s clearly not even remotely interested in offering up an entertaining or even interesting cinematic experience. As such, Dans Les Villes contains a surfeit of long, relentlessly tedious sequences that go absolutely nowhere – eg characters walk aimlessly, ride the subway, go shopping, etc – leaving the viewer with little to do other than daydream and count the reel changes. It’s a shame, really, as the movie is actually fairly well made and nicely acted – though some of these characters are somewhat lacking in authenticity (the blind guy who takes pictures is a fairly good example of this). It’s apparent right from the get-go that Martin is going for a Magnolia-esque portrait of loneliness, but since every one of these characters remains sketchily drawn (at best!), the film is distinctly lacking in the sort of emotional impact that Martin must have been striving for.

* out of ****