DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog: TIFF 2010 - Our Day Will Come

Sunday 12 September 2010

TIFF 2010 - Our Day Will Come

Our Day Will Come (2010) dir. Romain Gavras
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy

**½

By Alan Bacchus

Young Remy is a red head which has fostered an inferiority complex - he’s pushed around by his schoolmates, his mother, his sister, even his World of Warcraft internet girlfriend. And so when Vincent Cassel playing a disaffected therapist named Patrick meets up with him, it sparks Remy’s inner nihilist which puts him on a mission to travel to Ireland and unite with his red headed brethren.

Romain Gavras (son of Costas Gavras) has created something in the realm of a French Fight Club, but without the fighting and the satire. The film works best in the first half when we see Patrick take the emasculated Remy under his wing and teaches him to stand up for himself. He starts a fight with some Arabs in a café just to see Remy's reaction. Patrick then give Remy an alter ego, assuming the guise of a kick boxer in order to pick up a couple of girls on the street. Once Remy has taken control of his life and asserted his dominance as a red head, they embark on a rambunctious roadtrip to Ireland.

Vincent Cassel is typically magnetic as the Tyler Durden figure in Remy’s life. He’s also credited as producer, which perhaps explains how he could be convinced to shave off his head, eyebrows, appear full monty and engage in a rather eye-popping three-way sex scene where he actually lights a woman’s chest on fire.

After a rather involving setup, the film loses focus fast and in the second half devolves into a series of increasingly random events and inexplicable behaviour from the characters. Patrick loses his sanity completely after the said drunken chest fire lighting incident and finishes out the film in a zombie-like daze.

Barthelemy as Remy is a good match to the Cassel aura of debauchery. By the end Gavras successfully transforms Remy into a cross bow-armed badass Travis Bickle rescuing Patrick from society in a balloon.

Gavras does manage to salvage the film with this oddball but strangely beautiful ending, the two men escaping the world and sailing off into the sunset. I’m not quite sure what it means, or how it completes their journey, but somehow it feels right.

2 comments :

trevor said...

i didn't think the ending salvaged at all. just made it clear how much of a mess the film was. it was sophomoric and self indulgent. definitely could see his music video roots and it wasn't good.

Ricky said...

This was indulgent film making at it's worst,The usual gratuitous violence is normally the hallmark of a early student film and in search of more family fame Garvas Jnr has set out to drive the normal filmgoer away early and partly succeeded, A strong cast did themselves no favours by taking part in this pointless romp, Vincent Cassell's undoubted talent is wasted here,