Elle

Well, full of twists and tangential story lines, which can be good. Boundaries were definitely pushed. However, in this film, conclusions and resolutions were reached without being earned. Story lines just jumped from problem to the problem being solved, which is lazy writing. The performances were good, but ultimately the film left me disappointed.

Some things from France are very tasty, like coq au vin. This is not one of those things. This is tasteless. In fact, making it tasteless would be doing us a favor, because this film tastes like Paul Verhovens junk after a boozy transatlantic flight. Halfway through, the viewer has an aha moment. We realize that while Paul Verhoven made Total Recall, he also made Strippers or whatever that POS with Elizabeth Berkeley was called. This is a POS of a different nature, because he has taken the tastelessness of Strippers and added subtitles. So the whole story of a loathsome post menopausal C word fascinated by rape and in love with her rapist... I honestly cant continue.

I would describe ELLE as a psycho-sexual-mystery-suspense story. As some others have mentioned, this movie is not for everyone. If you have experienced any sexual abuse trauma you should think twice about watching this film. I could barely make it through the rape scenes. Still, this is from the director who brought us BASIC INSTINCT and thats saying something. This is no cheap exploitation flick. A very thought provoking film exploring the sexual and power dynamics between the characters. I wouldnt watch it again but I wont ever forget it.

Great thing about this movie and what makes it so refreshing is that it does not feel like it was written by a committee. The Hollywood movies Im talking about are those with cookie-cutter scripts and feel like either PSAs or anti-PSAs and feel like youve seen dozens like them already. This is the story of how a super-smart woman deals successfully and unconventionally with misfortune

The setting is French urban chic. The central character plus friend are both bosses of their video-gaming company. Female leadership and therefore the drive to characterization is from that sex. The protagonist is dealing with various levels of complicated relationships: with her son, with her mother, with her ex-husband, with her lover, and with the desired focus on the particular game being developed. In that context, the unfolding story is how she responds to being raped; violent in itself. Its the unfolding twists - twisted even reactions that take ones breath away. There is a deep psychological dimension. For some who might explore more, read Whose Been Sleeping in Your Head.

For the great acting and very good production. A very twisted story, but not too far from reality for some. I wanted to stop watching it at one point, but I could not. Have you own experience.

Ms. Huppert was robbed. Her performance in this movie shouldve won the Best Actress Oscar. No she did not kill her rapist or even have him arrested even though she ended up knowing who he was. The untimely end (of the rapist) was done by another person.

Interesting movie about a woman who is raped and plays a cat and mouse game with her attacker all the while secretly in a twisted lust with the experience. Shes a powerful woman working in a mans world, owning a video game company and trying to live life and escape her past. With a troubled relationship with her son and his girlfriend, her man lusting mother and her criminal father she becomes obsessed with her attacker and almost seemingly turned on as well. Its very different, a foreign film that goes slow at times but def keeps you guessing.

Hands down, the most peculiar film Ive ever seen. Perhaps the comedy is lost in the cultural translation from French to American but it was not to my taste! The subject matter is distasteful and if this is what the French define as comedy, well, its all just wrong in my opinion. The main characters disregard for not only herself but those around her is startling and disturbing. Do, I regret spending time on this film, no. But would I ever recommend someone take time out of their life to view it, absolutely not.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be giving anything starring one of my favorite screen stars a poor review. So many glowing ones here, and yet I am stumped. I loved The Piano Teacher in which she played a sexually suppressed and twisted woman. And I have loved just about everything else shes done. I had high hopes for this film when it started. She looks fabulous; the rest of the cast is great. And yet - it just didnt add up on so many levels, most notably the physical. How could it be that this woman is raped and beaten again and again and yet comes up glowing and bouncy, able to dance with her rapist after having her knee gashed by him. Why is her face seen as perfectly alabaster after multiple throttlings by her horrible abuser? I was somehow led to believe that she extracts her revenge on him, and I thought that was going to be in some clever, interesting way, but no - in the end she is as despicable as the rapist in my opinion, leaving it to an innocent to do the killing. Is her sang froid in so many sensitive situations supposed to imply that she does, after all, take after her psychopathic father? The finale seems to prove this; what she has done to her best friend. But whats particularly troublesome is that she is forgiven, again and again, by the people she uses. That does not ring true. A person like that might be feared but she would also be hated by others, not celebrated and adored. So for me, this is less about a poor woman who is raped than about a total narcissist/sociopath who has no qualms about using everyone around her, including her son, for her twisted needs and desires. No, this one just didnt add up. Mostly, though, it was her lack of any scars or physical repercussions of rape. That is an insult to women who have suffered rape and live with the mental and phsyical damages. Im shocked that critics didnt understand that. The cool, attractive cookie role not only doesnt work here, its destructive to women, and I would not advise any woman I know to see it.