As to not reveal any spoiler about the film, I will just say it belongs to a very specific category in cinema and because it borrows so much from other pieces in what it essentially is, there is necessarily a drop in just how much quality could be attributed to it. Despite that, fundamentally it is different and brings together its very own flavor and works coherently with itself to deliver what it ultimately means in a way authentic enough. Depardieu is awesome in this, as always, while Polanski is at times quite mediocre but overall puts in a fair performance. These are the two main protagonists mind you, and the entire film happens through these two characters' consciences and the dialog they establish (which is very play-like in its rhythm and structure). It was a very tough task to write this film and with how very little there was to deal with as far as matter to fill a full length motion picture, this is remarkable work. It's a film all in subtlety, dialog though not without any events, atmosphere, tension, and serves as a palette of the various human emotions as they transpire through the exercise of maieutics. But yet, it lacks a certain dynamic overall in what it ultimately sets out to deliver and the film as a whole doesn't ring as memorably or as emotionally as the film should intend.
Review of A Pure Formality
