Foreign Film Snapshot: "Rust and Bone" Starring Marion Cotillard

The journey to maturity and independence bonds two unlikely people together in the French-Belgian film Rust and Bone. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a young single father who is out of work and relies on his sister, Anna (Corinne Masiero), for a place to stay and food to eat. Their living arrangement is far from ideal, but the wayward Ali does not seem to mind. As a parent, Ali is impatient and occasionally resorts to physical abuse. He even forgets to pick his son, Sam (Armand Verdure), up from school and seems more concerned with spreading his seed that taking responsibility for his life. However, after receiving an offer to restart his interest in kickboxing, Ali finds a new purpose.

Stéphanie (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard) meets Ali at a nightclub where he works part time as a bouncer. After she gets into an altercation with another man and is injured, Ali takes her home, which does sit well with her boyfriend. The undeterred Ali is even brazen enough to leave his telephone number. Shortly thereafter, Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), who works at a marine park, not unlike Sea World, as an animal trainer, suffers a terrible accident during a show. She is injured before falling into the water and is attacked by a killer whale and, as a result, her legs are amputated from the knee down. After being deserted by her boyfriend, she decides to call Ali, who helps to rebuild her self esteem. Before long, their relationship turns physical, but the wandering Ali continues to bed other women too, but at least he is honest about it. Stéphanie wants something more permanent with Ali and she decides to learn more about his violent role in the world of kickboxing, which has been very lucrative for him. Ali clearly has the drive to be successful and physically dominates his opponents. His desire to succeed inspires Stéphanie to begin to put her life back together and they begin to grow closer, which is helpful to both of them with the challenges they are about to face.

Rust and Bone, from writer/director Jacques Audiard, is an interesting character study that boasts strong performances from the aforementioned Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts and features an unlikely romance between the main characters. However, I found it difficult to root for them to be together because Ali is so unlikable and does not appear to deserve the decent people who populate his life. However, as the film moves along, viewers begin to see a different side of Ali, as challenges force him to rethink his life and priorities, but can he be fully redeemed? The answer to that question is up for viewers to decide. While I was invested in the story and the characters, with a run time of two hours, Rust and Bone feels overly long and the screenplay did not sustain my interest for the duration. However, the performances are well worth seeing, even though you may find yourself strongly disliking Ali for much of the film. That is not a criticism, as Matthias Schoenaerts should be credited with making viewers feel something for Ali, even if it is antipathy.