Until I saw La Marginale I didn’t know such over-sentimental films were still made in Europe. Director Franck Cimière milks the theme of homelessness and loneliness like a holy cow. This is a very attentive respectful look at an almost-mother-almost-son road film.
But it is too soppy to be impactful. Also, the plot stretches itself to the point of implausibility. What I enjoyed were the fine performances of Corinne Masiero and Vincent Chalambert, particularly the latter. Masiero is a veteran French actress best known for her raw performance in Louise Wimmer.
Here in La Marginale, she plays Michelle, a homeless wretchedly unhappy woman, reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s Ironweed, living at the Orly airport hoping that her missing son would turn up one day and take her away.
That walk into the ‘son’-set never happens. To get to that point of non-happening, we are made to wade through a slush of tears that almost feels like misery-porn, and seemingly amusing dialogues between Michelle and Theo(Vincent Chalambert) a mentally challenged but sweet and helpful boy young enough to be her son (hint hint).
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With a bagful of hope and stolen money, Michelle speeds off with Theo in his minuscule car to meet her missing son in Lisbon. The writers play on the dramatic tension between the mismatched travelers, one belligerent, the other angelic. But both disillusioned with life and lonely, though Theo has a loving and caring aunt back home, he still craves social acceptance which has been denied to him since childhood due to his mental condition.
In a specially cruel moment, Michelle ridicules Theo for his naivete, “Your mother dumped you during your childhood for the way you are.”Any woman who can speak this way to a boy who has agreed to accompany her to look for her son deserves her misery.
We deserve better. Why is the film so mawkish and clichéd? There is so much potential to bring the two emotional drifters together. All we get to see is sequence after sequence crammed with over-sweetened sentimentality. There is no room for tenderness or subtlety. All space is taken over by a mound of maudlinism.
Amidst the reign of tears, the two actors struggle to make sense of their characters beyond their obvious sentimentality. They are forever let down by the writing. At one point during the road trip, Theo meets a girl called Mercedes (Sarah Perles). They have a conversation about why she is named after a car(very inspiring) and then she runs off with Michelle’s money (very uncool).
Wait, it doesn’t end there. Later Theo retrieves the money from Mercedes. Lo Car lo baat!