Special Treatment

The latest film from French filmmaker Jeanne Labrune, Special Treatment follows a slick prostitute (Isabelle Huppert’s Alice) and an unhappy therapist (Bouli Lanners’ Xavier) as they unknowingly help one another solve their respective problems following a chance encounter. There’s little doubt that Special Treatment‘s disastrously uninvolving opening half hour is exacerbated by Huppert’s mere presence, as the actress is effectively playing the exact same role that she’s played on so many occasions before (ie doesn’t she get sick of playing cold, calculating women?) The film’s episodic structure ensures that the viewer’s interest tends to run hot and cold throughout the proceedings, with the number of compelling interludes (eg Alice explains exactly how she works and what she charges to Xavier) almost entirely equal to the number of less-than-enthralling segments (eg Xavier visits an almost comically sordid sex club in which a pig makes an appearance). The increasingly prominent emphasis on subplots of a decidedly needless nature certainly contributes to the film’s hopelessly uneven atmosphere, and it’s ultimately clear that the rambling narrative diminishes the strength of the surprisingly conventional endings for the two central characters.

** out of ****