35 Shots of Rum (Saturday, September 20, 2009) (130)

This Claire Denis film tells the story of a black father and daughter who live in the Parisian Banlieue. Lionel is a train conductor for the RER and Josephine is a college student, who also works part time at a record store. They are very close with their neighbors. Noe, an international business man has some dating history with Josephine and lives above them. Gabrielle, a taxi driver who lives down the hall, is a mother figure for Josephine and an almost-girlfriend to Lionel. The story is a slice-of-life drama that follows the group as they go about their every-day lives for a few months.

By far the best element in the film is the performance of Alex Descas as Lionel. He's quiet, but strong and always proper and respectful. We easily see that he's a good man who loves his daughter and his friends. (He was also great in the Jim Jarmusch's not-totally-successful film The Limits of Control from earlier this year - he's a really good actor!)

The biggest problem with the film is that it's incredibly simple, but small details are presented in a much too opaque fashion. It takes a few scenes of seeing Lionel leaving his work for us to realize that he actually drives the trains rather than simply working for the train syndicate. It takes at least two scenes to figure out that Lionel and Josephine are father and daughter rather than two loves. It is only clear late that Gabrielle is not Josephine's actual mother. These elements are small, yes, but there's no reason not to tell us these things straightforwardly. Rather they are presented elliptically, which is frustrating.

I liked the small fresh style of the film. At times it feels like a French Mike Leigh film - small, tight, intimate, with interesting characters doing mundane things and a wonderful atmosphere. There are beautiful shots of the train tracks around Paris as Lionel rides around for his work. There are great small details of banality about how the characters move around their apartments.

But it is a poor-man's Mike Leigh film. At the end of the day, nothing really happens in this and it's rather much ado about nothing. Not to say that that is always bad - but I wish here there had been a bit more substance to the story. I wish there had been a bit more about the black life in the Banlieue - about people who live happy lives near one of the world's greatest cities, but very separate from it. Sadly there was almost none of this.

Stars: 2 of 4