Movie Review - Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) (2012)

Starring Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, and Corinne Masiero

Directed by Jacques Audiard

I was expecting the two hour length of French drama Rust and Bone to be dreadful, but right off the bat, I'll state that the film moves along at a nice clip considering this is a small, intimate relationship story between two people whose chance meeting one night at a club links them together after a tragic moment strikes one of them.  While I was engaged in the film, I must admit there's something missing here -- the film strikes me as wanting to be deep and meaningful, but it failed on that front.  While Rust and Bone presents a good story, its pieces don't quite come together in the end in order to create a cohesive and emotionally riveting tale.

As I began to describe above, Rust and Bone tells the tale of Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Stéphanie (Marion Cotiallard) -- two people who meet by chance at a popular French dance club where Ali works as a bouncer.  When Stéphanie is punched in the nose during a fight, Ali agrees to take her home where he discovers that she's living with a significant other which he finds a bit odd considering that she was alone at the club seemingly looking for some form of hook-up.  While he may have entered her apartment with romantic intentions, Ali leaves and doesn't really plan on ever hearing from Stéphanie again.

A few months later, Stéphanie is involved in a horrible accident at a local marine park (reminiscent of Sea World) where she works as a killer whale trainer.  After waking up from a coma after the incident, Stéphanie heartbreakingly discovers that both her legs have been amputated below the knees.  Homebound and feeling destitute, she calls up Ali on a whim and he agrees to come and see her.  A friendship is formed almost immediately and the relationship between the two of them grows into something quite surprising for both parties.

The story is fine here and the time spent focused on Stéphanie and her recovery from her accident are actually quite touching and very well acted by Marion Cotillard.  However, ultimately, the film doesn't quite click because the arcs of the characters of Stéphanie and Ali don't quite mesh together.  Stéphanie's character grows in an obvious way (and I mean that not in a negative manner) as she learns to cope with her new way of living.  Ali's character, though, is an enigma to me.  At the beginning of the film he's a down on his luck guy who moves to his sister's home with his young son (Armand Verdure).  He's rough around the edges and hasn't spent much time with his kid, so he's learning the ropes as he goes.  Without any money, he takes jobs in security positions -- bouncer, nighttime guard -- until a friend convinces him to start fighting in a "fight club"-type street tournament.  This character background is all well and good, but it doesn't take the character of Ali anywhere worth going.  Yes, we find out he has a heart at the end when tragedy strikes him as well, but I feel like the writers simply didn't know what to do with his character and it blatantly shows onscreen.  The unfortunate thing is that Ali is actually the main character here -- the film starts and ends with his story -- whereas we in the audience are much more invested in Stéphanie and her struggles.

Rust and Bone is not a bad film, but the potential for more was evident and not realized.  The performances all around are quite good (with Marion Cotillard giving the best performance I've seen from her...but I should say that I haven't really been a fan before this).  If it shows up streaming on Netflix, I'd say it's worth a watch, but I wouldn't exactly be going out of my way to see this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+