It took me a while, but I finally watched this movie on DVD. And I’m so glad I did: Rust and Bone is beautiful. It delivers a quiet, deep story about humans and our need for connection. In French with English subtitles, this movie shows characters here that weave through issues of relationships between father and son, brother and sister, man and woman—and how all of those can interplay. After a horrific accident involving a woman Ali had a very brief encounter with, their lives re-intersect as each reaches out to others for that connection we all seek. (I won’t reveal more details, but I will say that I had not known the details of the accident (or even, really, the plot) before seeing this movie. I find it incredibly ironic to have watched this the weekend before I plan to see Blackfish.) Actually, Ali mostly runs away from any connection as he risks his life over and again, finally fighting against what he has for so long tossed away. How forcibly he escapes relationships is as much the story as how much he desperately needs them underneath it all.
What struck me about this tale mostly is its approach to Stephanie’s (Marion Cotillard—-an incredibly gifted actress who needs no words to amazingly emote) accident and recovery. Most films that involve such a physically debilitating accident tightly latch on to the recovery story, from the accident to some sort of “overcoming” new physical challenges. I loved how this one didn’t. Instead, Stephanie’s physical challenges are just one part of the story rather than the focus of it. (Although one of my favorite scenes is that in which she dances in her new apartment.) Leaving the physical issues as backdrop, the focus is the relationships and the yearning for connection. We watch as Stephanie does so more outright, and we quietly hold our breath as we see Ali discover he has that need and that yearning too in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes I’ve witnessed in some time.
I sum up Rust and Bone as “beautiful.” True, the characters here are not necessarily glamorous (except I must acknowledge that Matthias Schoenaerts, who plays Ali, is H-h-h-hOT!) But that makes this movie even better. Although the people in the film border on average, the movie itself is far above. The filming, the music, the emotion that leaps from the screen and lands gently in your soul—–this movie is beautiful.