March 28, 2025
FILM: MISERICORDIA
DIRECTED BY: ALAIN GUIRAUDIE
STARRING: FELIX KYSYL, CATHERINE FROT, JEAN-BAPTISTE DURAND
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
During the opening moments of the new French film Misericordia, we see a long, winding road that is being driven on by an unknown character. The car takes us into a French village on a gloomy day. It is here that we meet Jeremie Pastor who arrives at the home of Martine Rigal whose husband Jean-Pierre has recently died. How the characters are connected isn’t clear for quite some time. Similarly, who Jeremie is and why he decides to remain in the village instead of his home in Toulouse is also a mystery. Much of the film is experienced with a cold chill. The season is fall and the characters aren’t particularly warm to each other, although Martine does graciously open her home to Jeremie. Ultimately though, the experience watching the film is a bit tiresome and mysterious with quirky characters making decisions that are often quite questionable.
Jeremie, the central character, is not particularly likeable. His motivations during several plot turns seem random and his subsequent actions are made on a whim. He’s aimless with a fluid sexuality which doesn’t seem at all discriminating. The one other character he seems to know well from his past in the town is Vincent, Martine’s son. Whenever the two are together they end up in a physical fight in the woods. We never really find out much about their backgrounds or previous confrontations. There almost seems to be something instinctual about their drive for some sort of wrestling-based dominance. Clearly, Vincent doesn’t want Jeremie to remain in town and seems to fear that the latter is attempting to woo Martine and take over the deceased Jean-Pierre’s bakery.
However, Jeremie remains directionless as he wanders the trails throughout the village and makes sudden visits to locals such as Walter Bonchamp (David Ayala) who immediately pulls out a bottle for them to share even though it appears the day has just begun. Time almost seems irrelevant. The only real sense of time found in the film is when Jeremie is asleep and we see the digital clock next to him revealing the wee hours of the night/morning. Generally, though, events take place at confusing and seemingly illogical times of the day.
If you’ve read this far it’s pretty clear I was confounded by much of the film and not particularly entertained by it. It’s being billed as a comedy/crime/drama and I’d certainly reverse that order. There is at least one tragic situation that develops which actually helps to move the plot forward in a curious direction involving the local priest. His intentions towards Jeremie may be guided by his own cynical view of the world or just plain lust. He becomes the figure who dispenses advice based on a slippery moral conscience.
Perhaps the film wants to explore the lengths people will go as justification for their actions. That’s fine, but I would have liked to see this idea be developed earlier than it does when most viewers will be left in the dark about why they are even watching these characters.
Misericordia opens today in limited theatrical release.
FILM: MISERICORDIA
DIRECTED BY: ALAIN GUIRAUDIE
STARRING: FELIX KYSYL, CATHERINE FROT, JEAN-BAPTISTE DURAND
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
During the opening moments of the new French film Misericordia, we see a long, winding road that is being driven on by an unknown character. The car takes us into a French village on a gloomy day. It is here that we meet Jeremie Pastor who arrives at the home of Martine Rigal whose husband Jean-Pierre has recently died. How the characters are connected isn’t clear for quite some time. Similarly, who Jeremie is and why he decides to remain in the village instead of his home in Toulouse is also a mystery. Much of the film is experienced with a cold chill. The season is fall and the characters aren’t particularly warm to each other, although Martine does graciously open her home to Jeremie. Ultimately though, the experience watching the film is a bit tiresome and mysterious with quirky characters making decisions that are often quite questionable.
Jeremie, the central character, is not particularly likeable. His motivations during several plot turns seem random and his subsequent actions are made on a whim. He’s aimless with a fluid sexuality which doesn’t seem at all discriminating. The one other character he seems to know well from his past in the town is Vincent, Martine’s son. Whenever the two are together they end up in a physical fight in the woods. We never really find out much about their backgrounds or previous confrontations. There almost seems to be something instinctual about their drive for some sort of wrestling-based dominance. Clearly, Vincent doesn’t want Jeremie to remain in town and seems to fear that the latter is attempting to woo Martine and take over the deceased Jean-Pierre’s bakery.
However, Jeremie remains directionless as he wanders the trails throughout the village and makes sudden visits to locals such as Walter Bonchamp (David Ayala) who immediately pulls out a bottle for them to share even though it appears the day has just begun. Time almost seems irrelevant. The only real sense of time found in the film is when Jeremie is asleep and we see the digital clock next to him revealing the wee hours of the night/morning. Generally, though, events take place at confusing and seemingly illogical times of the day.
If you’ve read this far it’s pretty clear I was confounded by much of the film and not particularly entertained by it. It’s being billed as a comedy/crime/drama and I’d certainly reverse that order. There is at least one tragic situation that develops which actually helps to move the plot forward in a curious direction involving the local priest. His intentions towards Jeremie may be guided by his own cynical view of the world or just plain lust. He becomes the figure who dispenses advice based on a slippery moral conscience.
Perhaps the film wants to explore the lengths people will go as justification for their actions. That’s fine, but I would have liked to see this idea be developed earlier than it does when most viewers will be left in the dark about why they are even watching these characters.
Misericordia opens today in limited theatrical release.