Review 2-Love Me If You Dare

Ma. Marguerite C.
Tolentino 11140003 More than Just Childs Play Released in 2004 and directed by Yann Samuell, Jeaux d Enfants or Love Me If You Dare is a French film that revolves around the lengthy and complicated love story of Julien and Sophie. The film stars Guillaume Canet as Julien, Marion Cotillard as Sophie, Thibault Verhaeghe as young Julien, Josephine Lebas Joly as young Sophie, Emmanuelle Gronvold as Julien's mother, and Gerard Watkins as Julien's father. Love Me If You Dare isnt your typical love story and gives you a different perspective on how games really are played. The movie has been nominated in the Gijon International Film Festival for Grand Prix Asturias Best Feature in 2004, Golden Trailer Awards for Best Romance in 2005, and won Best Drama in the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2004. It has been criticized for its amateur theme, but has also been loved both by critics and viewers because of its unique story line. The movie unfolds with a view of a construction site and finally focusing on a slab of concrete with a tin can embedded on the top. Julien narrates games he thinks he plays well and games he likes, but centers on a game you should never play. One morning, Juliens ill mother gives him a tin can and tells him it is special. Julien leaves for school, but sees Sophie picking up her things from a puddle. To cheer Sophie up, Julien gives Sophie the tin can from his mother but tells her to lend it to him some time. Sophie then asks Julien to prove why she should lend it to him because he already gave the can to her and to prove it, Julien pulls the handbrake of the school bus that was filled with children and the school bus rolls on and afterwards, Julien gets the can back from Sophie. That was the beginning of the game. The dares of Julien and Sophie as INTFILM A53
children ranged from answering back to the elderly, peeing in front of the principal, disobedience, and trashing the wedding of Sophies sister. After the death of Juliens mother, Sophie was asked by Juliens father to sleep over at their place. Julien described their sleep as lasting for 10 years, and when they wake up, Julien and Sophie were in their teens already. As teenagers, they continued playing the game with even more challenging dares, and one afternoon, Sophie gave Julien another dareto love her. Julien agrees, but Sophie gets offended that Julien thinks of everything as part of the game. The two protagonists do not see each other for a few years to get their priorities straight, but eventually meet again. Julien and Sophie see each other again as working adults, Sophie as a waitress and Julien working in a construction firm. The game is still being played at this point, and the next dare was for Julien not to marry his bride. Julien couldnt agree with what he has to do and puts Sophies life at risk with his next dare to her. Ten years pass that Julien and Sophie havent seen each other and in that span of time, the two protagonists have both married already. On the evening of his tenth wedding anniversary, Julien gets a call from Sophie and the game is on once again. Sophie set Julien up to get caught by the police but Julien gets in an accident during the car chase. Julien turns out to have gotten only minor injuries and Sophie eventually realizes this. She and Julien profess their love for each other despite of being in front of their spouses at that time. The final dare of the game involves Julien and Sophie staying in love forever, and they decide to do this by immortalizing themselves in concrete at a construction site. The movie offers two endings, one with Julien and Sophie growing old together and the other with them buried in concrete; but going back to the opening scene, one realizes then that the latter one is the real ending and Julien and Sophies growing old together was just a fantasy.
Love Me If You Dare presents a love story of a different kind. The dreamy scene of when Julien was dreaming and describing how doing dares felt like flying was one of the scenes I enjoyed the most. The vivid colors and different style of animation caught my attention and made want more scenes to have little flashes of distorted realities. Another scene I enjoyed was when Julien was reliving the time he and Sophie got scolded by their principal for using foul words in class and the scene was a parody of the story of Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden. The same style of animation was applied, and the too bright colors hinted that everything was just a fantasy. There were some parts of the movie that I thought were kind of confusing, like when Sophie asked Sergei her husband, to turn the car around and go back to the hospital for Julien. I didnt understand how she got the instinct to all of a sudden go back to the hospital at the same time Julien was calling her name. There could have been a mental connection that wasnt established, but it was unclear of how that came to be. The movie was criticized of being too childish, but I believe that it was meant to be so. The story revolved around the love story of Julien and Sophie since they were children, and making the movie too focused on the loving relationship of the protagonists would probably lose the essence of them once being children. Though there were confusing and vague scenes, the overall impact of the movie to me was a positive one. It gave a new meaning to childs games, taking them to the next level and giving them a deeper meaning and purpose.
Source: www.Imdb.com

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Ma. Marguerite C.

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