Read
My Lips
by Chris Dashiell
The best thrillers are usually about something more than
plot. This is true of Jacques Audiard's Read My Lips,
which explores the curious places that loneliness can take us to, and
the impulse to give in to the more devious aspects of our nature.
Emmanuelle
Devos plays Carla, a young woman with a hearing impairment who works
for a big real estate firm. Her near-deafness magnifies the already
stressful conditions of her job, where she works twice as hard as everyone
else but is still treated with indifference at best, and at worst outright
contempt. She struggles with her anger, and envies her friends who have
romantic relationships. Acutely aware of her inexperience in matters
of sex, Carla seems to wear a perpetual frown, born of the sheer effort
it takes to get through life.
When
her boss suggests hiring an assistant to help her, the first applicant
that shows up is a recently released ex-con named Paul (Vincent Cassel).
He has no skills, and as it turns out, no place to live, but Carla -
obeying a desire that she is at first only dimly aware of - hires him
anyway. Scruffy and taciturn, Paul is sincere in wanting to stay out
of trouble. He's confused when Carla gives him an advance and finds
him a place to live, thinking that she wants sex in return, but she
runs from him when he makes a pass. Then, when Carla is betrayed by
a co-worker in a game of office politics, she asks Paul to use his thieving
skills to help her cause. As she gradually becomes more attached to
him, their strange complicity deepens, and Paul gets the idea of using
her lip-reading skills to pull off a major heist.
Audiard
employs an inventive visual technique - with deep variations in light
and shade, elliptic editing, and narrowing, iris-like effects - to emphasize
Carla's sense of isolation. More telling is the use of sound - or lack
of it. When Carla takes her hearing aid out, or puts it back in, we
experience her dislocation, and how she uses her disability to shut
out the world's demands when she needs to.
All
of this only supplements the major factor in the film's success - the
remarkable, intense performance of Devos as Carla. She brings her character's
sullen defiance, repressed passion, inner determination and conflict,
vividly to life. This is the kind of acting that compels one to watch,
and to identify with Carla even as one resists her choices.
Cassel
is the perfect match for her. He allows us to see the humanity within
the role of an inarticulate tough guy, and his chemistry with Devos
is such that you understand instinctively why these two would be attracted
to one another. The picture starts out as an edgy psychological drama,
and then becomes a crime thriller, but the relationship between the
two leads sustains interest throughout. Paul's presence in Carla's life
reflects her desire to break free from her confines and surrender to
something dangerously reckless within.
The
plot get rather wild towards the end - like many a suspense film, it
strains believability at times. Fortunately, the picture's emotional
weight keeps the crime element from seeming silly or contrived. Read
My Lips is tense, exciting, well acted, subtly directed, and insightful
too. You can't ask for much more than that from a thriller.
©2002 Chris Dashiell
CineScene
