Year:
2003
Studio:
Nord-Quest, StudioCanal,
Artemis Productions,
France 2 Cinema
Feature:
2/5
DVD:
0/5
Love Me If You
Dare is a French movie . Foreign films can be quite weird because the
culture is different. This movie is a romantic story about two damaged
kids who grow up to become damaged adults. French boy Julien (Guillaume
Canet) befriends Polish girl Sophie (Marion Cotillard). Sophie is
picked on by the other kids and Julien's mom is very very sick.
Their friendship starts out simply: dares. They have a tin carausel box
which they trade back and forth along with a dare. The first third of
the movie is kid's dares that inevitably get each of them into much
trouble. And it's that trouble that binds them closer and closer
together.
Skip 10 years and they're preparing for high school exams. They're
still playing their game and it's starting to get out of hand. Sophie
has fallen in love with Julien and perhaps Julien feels the same. But
the game is so ingrained in them that neither of them can tell if the
other one is playing or being serious. Their relationship ends badly.
After four years of silence they meet again. The game is still on but
the dares get nastier and nastier. Julien tricks Sophie into thinking
he's proposing when he's actually just wants her to be a bridesmaid at
his wedding. Sophie tries to ruin Julien's wedding. Julien tries to
indirectly kill Sophie. They walk away from each other again.
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Ten years
later. Julien is married with two kids and he thinks about Sophie every
day. She said no contact for 10 years and it is now 10 years to the
day. And the box arrives by mail. It's a dare that almost gets Julien
killed.
But they finally realize that they love each other. They're lives have
no meaning without each other and the game. They live their spouses and
decide to be together forever in the ultimate dare. And as the movie
ends they kiss as concrete is poured into the foundation they're
standing in. Together forever. In death.
Throughout the film Julien provides narration which helps us understand
what's going on and what he's feeling. You can really tell how the came
becomes an all-consuming passion for him. The ending actually is not a
surprise since the movie starts with the tin box partially embedded in
the cement foundation while the voice over talks about being entombed
in concrete.
The whole movie seems rather twisted and French if you ask me and the
reason why I only
gave this movie two stars. Hollywood ending they would have declared
their love and run off together. Perhaps they would still play their
game but it would fun instead of dark. I would have liked that ending
much more. Maybe someday someone will redo this movie right.
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