Replay

What sort of world do we live in that Replay, a French film about an obsessive friendship is more than anything, boring? Of all the ways I expected this movie might be bad, being boring was not one of them.

Replay is about Nathalie and Louise. They are childhood friends but near the beginning of the movie, they fall out. Louise has gotten jealous over Nathalie’s focus on boys and tries to kill herself. Following this, they do not speak for several years. Later in life, Louise sees a play which happens to star Nathalie. They rekindle their friendship and begin to fall into old habits of codependency. Again, the relationship breaks down for a period of time before rekindling more intense than ever. In this third iteration of their relationship, they have sex which means the movie now qualifies for a review on my site.

I have a weak spot for obsessive, slightly unhealthy relationships. I think they are interesting. Yet Replay was not interesting. The relationship between Nathalie and Louise was too subtle. The signs of something more than regular friendship come too infrequently and in between them is just scenes of Nathalie and Louise acting far too regular to grab my attention.

Additionally, Louise and Nathalie didn’t have the chemistry needed to depict this relationship. There’s no magnetism between them. Their relationship should be as if they physically cannot stay away from each other, regardless of the fact that both women know this relationship is unhealthy. I don’t see that. The body language between the two actress is at a disconnect. I don’t see two women who have a codependent need for each other when they are onscreen together. Instead, Nathalie and Louise often seem like near strangers rather than two women who have known each other since childhood.

Replay fails to build tension. It doesn’t really ramp up to anything climactic. There is one scene near the end involving a doctor coming to visit a sick Nathalie that has some drama to it. But even here, it doesn’t work. The movie punts it by not concluding the scene on a dramatic note nor ending the movie on this scene. It limps along to its actual finish with each minute robbing that single scene of its drama.

Replay bored me. It didn’t grab my attention let alone hold it. I can and will forgive a movie with a lot of objective faults if it manages to hold my interest. Replay didn’t manage to do that. Despite its run time being in the 90 minute range, the film felt slow and far too long. It’s frustrating because I think Replay could be an interesting movie if it just did more. But it didn’t. So Replay remains a dull, uninteresting movie with untapped potential.

Overall rating: 4.9/10

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