Amour 2012-review

I realise that I'm a bit late reviewing this film but the constant praises for this film during this award season made me to check the movie out.

Directed by Michael Haneke(The White Ribbon),Amour(Love) is  about the relationship of an older couple( played by two french veteran Emmanuelle Riva and Jean Louis Tintrignant) on how the bond of this couple is tested when one fell into sick and becomes totally dependant to the other.To be more precise ,its a movie that investigate on how much can you  or will you do  for love.

Retired music teachers Anne and Georges lives a happily and blissful life alone in their posh apartment with their  materialistic adult daughter(Isabelle Huppert) visiting them once in a while.Their peace is interrupted when one morning Anne got a minor stroke and the surgery fixing this condition goes wrong leaves her half paralysed.Now  dependant to her husband  even to perform simple tasks,Anne asks her husband to promise her that he would never admit her into a nursing care home or into the hospital.Their daughter is unsure of her father capability and prefers her mum to be sent to a nursing home despite the protest of her father and this sort of strains their relationship.The fact that Anne  gradually lose the will to live doesn't help too.The rest of the movie explores whether Georges  can keep his promise or will he send her to a home or worse decide to respect her decision of not wanting to live.

Watching Amour,I was constantly reminded of a strong  and devastating scene in last years Love and  Other Drugs starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.It was the scene where Jake Gyllenhaal  was advised  to abandon his Parkinson disease diagnosed girlfriend  when he can by a  old guy whose wife also suffers the same disease as he will soon stop loving his girlfriend if he doesn't leave her and that fact will kill her fast than the disease itself.That notion was prevalent throughout Amour as you see  how both of the couple is affected by this disease.

I have to say that this film has to be the best film I had seen in this year and it contains many strong and powerful scene due to the realistic portrayal by the cast and brilliant directing.I cant stress enough how much I'm impressed by the directing and the screenplay.There were lots of scenes which very slow paced,detailed and  similar repeated throughout the film which brilliantly placed to provoke the audience boredom and when  a character reacts to the scene,the viewers could absolutely understand the plight of these characters.Plus,you have a lots of symbolism throughout the film that beautifully describes the state of mind of both the character such as the pigeon,the closed doors,the art drawings and the state of the untouched piano.The only problem was that the last 10 minutes seems unnecessary and a bit cliched and can be confusing to some extent.

All the praises and awards that Emmanuelle Riva is receiving for this film is definitely well deserved and I strongly believe she deserves more.She played the role of the paralysed Anne so well that if not for the beginning of the film where she walks and talks normally,I would have totally bought that she was truly half paralysed.She spends most of the film on bed  and relying her facial expressions to convey wide range of emotions.I felt Jean Louis Tintrignant who plays the husband Georges was equally if not more exceptional in the film.He basically carried  most of the film by himself and he manages to convey the helpless of Georges,the pain he endures,the love he has for his wife  brilliantly in every scene and all his scenes are pure gems.Two particular scenes made me shed tears for his character

Overall Amour is definitely mind provoking  film with a simple yet relatable and profound plot accompanied with superb performance by the lead.I'm gonna categorised this film under the same category as Blue Valentine,Whistle blower and this year's Compliance.All masterpiece but for only one viewing as the reality is too painful to watch.

Possible contenders for the following category:

Best Foreign Film
Best Director-Michael Haneke
Best Original Screenplay
Best Actor-Jean Louis Tintrignant
Best Actress-Emmanuelle Riva(Top 3 ,possible winner)

A