Love

Film Review by Philip Concannon | 05 Jan 2016
Film title: Love
Director: Gaspar Noé
Starring: Karl Glusman, Aomi Muyock, Klara Kristin
Release date: 11 Jan
Certificate: 18

Gaspar Noé's Love was shot in 3D, but it doesn't add any dimensions to its characters

“My biggest dream is to make a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality,” says Murphy (Glusman), the protagonist of Gaspar Noé's Love. Murphy is clearly a Noé avatar, and this movie is his dream come true, with the many sex scenes being staged and shot with an intimacy, frankness and skill that is worth celebrating. It's a shame about everything else.

Once again, Noé has paid more attention to technique than performance, and his characters here are blanks, whose romantic interactions consist of dumb platitudes and whose fights become interminable screaming matches; 135 minutes is an awful long time to spend inside a head as empty as Murphy's. While there's perhaps something self-mocking in Noé's approach, he's not self-aware or smart enough to pull off much of what he attempts, with a scene involving a trans prostitute marking a new low. You can watch Love in 3D, but it won't add any dimensions to the characters or this script.

Released by Curzon Artificial Eye