This film tries to be a cross between a psychological thriller and a character study. Unfortunately I think it falls short on both.
Spoiler alert
It starts with an intriguing scenario of a young blonde woman shopping for clothes, who faints and hits her head in the dressing room. After ministrations from the shop staff, she goes off and... off camera there are screams, and we assume she has met her demise. It is not explained what has happened, although there is mention of her face being "all bloody". My first thought was that she'd committed suicide by jumping over a railing, but then when nothing further was revealed I presumed that her hitting her head had brought on a delayed brain hemorrhage. It would be nice to have had it made clear. It never was explained exactly how she died, even at the end of the film.
The next scene shows a similar looking woman who is apparently not the same person, with no explanation given for the segue. So that bizarre segue hangs over the film, until it is explained near the end.
These sorts of unexplained segues can be intriguing in surrealist style movies, or in thrillers where they give you some glimmer of a clue to a connection between the two disjointed scenes, but in this case it was annoying that there were no hints at all for this one.
After this, we are plunged into scenes with the second blonde woman (Virginie Efira), who we gradually learn is Judith in one environment, and Margot in another.
"Judith" is apparently leading a double life with two different partners, and it's not clear why. This sort of thing is far more common with men than with women, so it's puzzling. Also, little clues are dropped that each partner know something about the other, which is even more puzzling.
I found the drip feed of clues rather frustrating. It didn't engage me with curiosity like a true thriller would, and yet I didn't feel enough empathy with the main character to enjoy it as a character study, as her motivations weren't clear. In fact, I found Judith rather irritating as she seemed to be a compulsive liar and fantasist.
All is revealed at the end, but the denouement did not seem to warrant the degree of mystery and intrigue leading up to it. I found myself feeling rather deflated and wondering what the point of this film was at the end.
There was also a rather strange and seemingly irrelevant set of scenes with a foreigner who forges her ID card, and who has become infatuated with her. My hackles went up at the danger inherent in this man's interest in her, and in her slightly leading him on, a risk I think it was very unwise for her to take.
I was also puzzled by the behaviour of the little girl at the end, when she rejected Judith/Margot as her mother. Yet earlier in the film there had been multiple loving seconds between the two and the girl had cried out for her, calling her "mother" when she went away. If the change was to be explained by Abdel telling the child the true identity of her mother just before Judith took her, then why did Judith subsequently tell Abdel "She knew all along who her mother was"? That didn't make sense, as the girl was only a baby when her mother died.
And finally, the name of the film, "Madeleine Collins", is not referenced till right at the end of the movie. By then it seemed somewhat superfluous.
So I am left wondering what the intentions of the writer and director were with this film? If it was meant to be a psychological thriller constructed around the idea of deceiving loved ones, the excellent "Un Homme Idéal" is an example of how to do this in a far more gripping way, without confusing segues and drip feeding of clues.
If it was meant to be a character study based on the impact of deceit in relationships, the recent "Adieu Monsieur Haffmann" was a master class in how this is done in a far more powerful and engaging way.
Spoiler alert
It starts with an intriguing scenario of a young blonde woman shopping for clothes, who faints and hits her head in the dressing room. After ministrations from the shop staff, she goes off and... off camera there are screams, and we assume she has met her demise. It is not explained what has happened, although there is mention of her face being "all bloody". My first thought was that she'd committed suicide by jumping over a railing, but then when nothing further was revealed I presumed that her hitting her head had brought on a delayed brain hemorrhage. It would be nice to have had it made clear. It never was explained exactly how she died, even at the end of the film.
The next scene shows a similar looking woman who is apparently not the same person, with no explanation given for the segue. So that bizarre segue hangs over the film, until it is explained near the end.
These sorts of unexplained segues can be intriguing in surrealist style movies, or in thrillers where they give you some glimmer of a clue to a connection between the two disjointed scenes, but in this case it was annoying that there were no hints at all for this one.
After this, we are plunged into scenes with the second blonde woman (Virginie Efira), who we gradually learn is Judith in one environment, and Margot in another.
"Judith" is apparently leading a double life with two different partners, and it's not clear why. This sort of thing is far more common with men than with women, so it's puzzling. Also, little clues are dropped that each partner know something about the other, which is even more puzzling.
I found the drip feed of clues rather frustrating. It didn't engage me with curiosity like a true thriller would, and yet I didn't feel enough empathy with the main character to enjoy it as a character study, as her motivations weren't clear. In fact, I found Judith rather irritating as she seemed to be a compulsive liar and fantasist.
All is revealed at the end, but the denouement did not seem to warrant the degree of mystery and intrigue leading up to it. I found myself feeling rather deflated and wondering what the point of this film was at the end.
There was also a rather strange and seemingly irrelevant set of scenes with a foreigner who forges her ID card, and who has become infatuated with her. My hackles went up at the danger inherent in this man's interest in her, and in her slightly leading him on, a risk I think it was very unwise for her to take.
I was also puzzled by the behaviour of the little girl at the end, when she rejected Judith/Margot as her mother. Yet earlier in the film there had been multiple loving seconds between the two and the girl had cried out for her, calling her "mother" when she went away. If the change was to be explained by Abdel telling the child the true identity of her mother just before Judith took her, then why did Judith subsequently tell Abdel "She knew all along who her mother was"? That didn't make sense, as the girl was only a baby when her mother died.
And finally, the name of the film, "Madeleine Collins", is not referenced till right at the end of the movie. By then it seemed somewhat superfluous.
So I am left wondering what the intentions of the writer and director were with this film? If it was meant to be a psychological thriller constructed around the idea of deceiving loved ones, the excellent "Un Homme Idéal" is an example of how to do this in a far more gripping way, without confusing segues and drip feeding of clues.
If it was meant to be a character study based on the impact of deceit in relationships, the recent "Adieu Monsieur Haffmann" was a master class in how this is done in a far more powerful and engaging way.
