French filmmaker and provocateur Claire Denis has provided
movie audiences with stimulating cinema over the years, with fare such as
Nenette et Boni, I Can't Sleep, and the award-winning Beau
Travail. Clearly, Denis has proven herself as a progressive
and provocative director whose cinematic vision remains dauntingly
confrontational. However, in her perversely passionate sexual artsy
thriller Trouble Every Day, Denis revels in the hedonistic arena of
extreme nudity, graphic sex, and even cannibalism. As a result, her film
ends up wallowing in the mundane seediness of its ludicrous and salacious
conventions. Although quite raw and caustic, Trouble Every Day is
an awkwardly garish showcase that diverges from anything remotely probing
or penetrating.
Vincent Gallo (Buffalo
'66) and Tricia Vessey (Town
& Country) portray American newlyweds named Shane and June
Brown, spending their honeymoon in romantic Paris. A reluctant Shane
appears fearful about consummating his marriage with an eager June,
causing him to seek refuge in a nearby Parisian medical clinic where he
explores his unexplainably weird sexual urges. And there's also this
tendency for him to want to devour his spouse during sex. Yes, as in
literally eating his loving partner's flesh right down to her human bone.
Hence, Shane has to resort to masturbation in order to overcome the desire
to chew on his new bride as if she were a juicy pork chop. Bottom line: If
Shane doesn't get the help he needs to control his bizarre behavior, he
will inevitably end up killing his woman.
Desperate and delusional,
Shane seeks out an old friend at the clinic, Dr. Semeneau (Alex Descas).
Hoping that the good doctor would have some miracle drug to contain his
psychosexual cannibalistic cravings, Shane finds out that the
controversial Dr. Semeneau was let go from the clinic due to his risky
experiments. In the meantime, Semeneau finds himself treating his own wife
Core (Beatrice Dalle) for the same affliction that beleaguers
Shane.
Denis collaborated on this movie's hysterically murky and
convoluted screenplay with co-writer Jean-Pol Fargeau. But for all
its explicit and raucous antics, we never get behind the self-destructive
deviance of the characters' psychosexual inadequacies. The film is
undoubtedly disturbing and has already caused a controversy with the
French media, but the movie really fails to challenge the concepts of
mental and emotional breakdown.
Overall, Trouble Every Day
may have a haunting urgency that some may regard as refreshingly
outlandish and strangely germane, but this romance thriller is a punishing
and unfocused spectacle merely trying to grab your attention… without much
idea of what to do with it.
From filmcritic.com
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