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Passages (2023)
The 2023 French import Passages is a sexually charged drama centered around a toxic love triangle that goes to so many disturbing places that it had this reviewer talking back to the screen and my blood boiling.
The film takes place in contemporary Paris where we meet a film director named Tomas, who has been married to Martin for 15 years, who actually finds himself drifting into an affair with a woman named Agathe, throwing the lives of all three into turmoil because even though Tomas thinks he has found a new life that he wants to embrace, nothing could be further from the truth.
Director and co-screenwriter Ira Sachs, who directed a film I really liked called Love is Strange, has mounted an alleged romantic drama that is troubling on so many levels I don't even know where to start. The initial premise here was just a little hard to accept. It was pretty hard to accept that a man who had spent 15 years married to another man could so easily move into a relationship with a woman. Their first sexual encounter was just too easy to believe...there was no discussion as to whether they really wanted to do this, there was no discomfort from Tomas about his first encounter with a woman, and most unbelievable of all, Tomas told Martin all about it the next day and just expected Martin to accept it.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Tomas is a self-absorbed prick who doesn't care about anyone but himself. He is shocked by Martin's anger, yet before the halfway point of the film, he is moving out of their home. It's a real struggle to accept that Tomas is just going to ease into this heterosexual relationship and not look back, but then comes the moment where he sees Martin with someone else and that's where everything explodes and a bombshell dropped around the halfway point of the story assures that no one can come out of this unscathed. This love triangle also leaves more than its share of collateral damage.
Sachs' direction is rich with emotion and sexual tension. He exposes a lot of the feelings of these three central characters through the sex scenes that recalled some of the work of Adrian Lyne. Sachs eventually makes it clear that this triangle has resulted because of sexual heat, not so much from romance. Loved the scene where after having moved out on Martin for awhile, he shows up at their house on a pretense, but it is clear his only mission is to get Martin back in bed. On the other hand, I could never get the thought of Agathe being completely satisfied sexually, which made a lot of this film hard to invest in.
Sachs does get superb performances from his leads though...Franz Rogowski lights up the screen playing the very hard to like Tomas and Ben Whishaw, robbed of an Oscar nomination last year for Women Talking is warm and vulnerable as the conflicted Martin. Adèle Exarchopoulos works hard at keeping Agathe sympathetic but she's really fighting the screenplay here. It moves slowly, seeming a lot longer than it really is, but it certainly kept my attention.
The 2023 French import Passages is a sexually charged drama centered around a toxic love triangle that goes to so many disturbing places that it had this reviewer talking back to the screen and my blood boiling.
The film takes place in contemporary Paris where we meet a film director named Tomas, who has been married to Martin for 15 years, who actually finds himself drifting into an affair with a woman named Agathe, throwing the lives of all three into turmoil because even though Tomas thinks he has found a new life that he wants to embrace, nothing could be further from the truth.
Director and co-screenwriter Ira Sachs, who directed a film I really liked called Love is Strange, has mounted an alleged romantic drama that is troubling on so many levels I don't even know where to start. The initial premise here was just a little hard to accept. It was pretty hard to accept that a man who had spent 15 years married to another man could so easily move into a relationship with a woman. Their first sexual encounter was just too easy to believe...there was no discussion as to whether they really wanted to do this, there was no discomfort from Tomas about his first encounter with a woman, and most unbelievable of all, Tomas told Martin all about it the next day and just expected Martin to accept it.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Tomas is a self-absorbed prick who doesn't care about anyone but himself. He is shocked by Martin's anger, yet before the halfway point of the film, he is moving out of their home. It's a real struggle to accept that Tomas is just going to ease into this heterosexual relationship and not look back, but then comes the moment where he sees Martin with someone else and that's where everything explodes and a bombshell dropped around the halfway point of the story assures that no one can come out of this unscathed. This love triangle also leaves more than its share of collateral damage.
Sachs' direction is rich with emotion and sexual tension. He exposes a lot of the feelings of these three central characters through the sex scenes that recalled some of the work of Adrian Lyne. Sachs eventually makes it clear that this triangle has resulted because of sexual heat, not so much from romance. Loved the scene where after having moved out on Martin for awhile, he shows up at their house on a pretense, but it is clear his only mission is to get Martin back in bed. On the other hand, I could never get the thought of Agathe being completely satisfied sexually, which made a lot of this film hard to invest in.
Sachs does get superb performances from his leads though...Franz Rogowski lights up the screen playing the very hard to like Tomas and Ben Whishaw, robbed of an Oscar nomination last year for Women Talking is warm and vulnerable as the conflicted Martin. Adèle Exarchopoulos works hard at keeping Agathe sympathetic but she's really fighting the screenplay here. It moves slowly, seeming a lot longer than it really is, but it certainly kept my attention.