Claire Dolan
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Movie Reviews of Claire Dolan
Movie Review: Surprised other reviewers didn't like this better
Summary: 5 Stars
For some incomprehensible reason, this came out in France several years ago so I bought it from Amazon.fr. It was well worth the extra cost and I'm glad I didn't have to wait for it to come out here.
Yes. It is dark, bleak, and generally depressing, but the ending is great and the performance from Katrin Cartlidge shows what a tremendous loss to Cinema it was when she died. She was the embodiment of the characteristic "nuanced."
Also very surprising was Colin Meany as the Claire's antagonist. (I don't like the word "villain" both because I have a hard time spelling it and because this is a story based on things that could have, and probably do, happen.)
Strongly, strongly recommended. I haven't checked but I think I put a review (in English) on Amazon.fr.
Movie Review: Vinny D'Onofrio nails it (and also Claire Dolan)
Summary: 5 Stars
Vinny D'Onofrio fans: watch this film. You know he acts in this film in his own intense way, and how we love his style.....but even better for all of us who have a crush on him....he nails the love scenes, hands down (and in one scene pants down). Colm Meaney was also superb in this film, he's a great actor. It is a dark film and Claire is a sad woman, a prostitute. The ending has a twist, so watch the whole film. Don't watch this with children in the room or nearby. (Not appropriate.)Movie Review: sexual but not sexy
Summary: 4 Stars
We open on images of urban architecture. Skyscrapers, high-rise apartments, covered in opaque glass and shot at angles that serve less to show us what lies inside these buildings than to reflect the world without.
This world is an ominous place and few people are made more aware of it than the titular Claire Dolan.
A Manhattan prostitute who caters to sorry, white-collar johns, Claire has a moment of clarity when her elderly mother dies under mysterious, unresolved circumstances. For Claire, intimacy has always been a carefully-constructed illusion she creates for her clients. "You're not like other men," she's fond of saying. "You're beautiful," they're found of replying. Neither is entirely true (no disrespect to deceased actress Katrin Cartlidge, who some will remember from noteworthy performances in Breaking the Waves or Naked).
When relationships are measured in dollars and every human exchange comes with cost, it's no surprise when Claire only has a passerby on the street to confide "I just buried my mother." The stranger offers little comfort. Claire attempts to restart her life across the Hudson River but ultimately fails to outrun her past - they have a way of catching up to people and hers comes in the form of her pimp (Colm Meaney, overjoyed to be playing something other than an Irish gangster). Along the way, she meets and ultimately falls in love with sensitive taxi driver, Elton (Vincent D'Onofrio, in what future generations will term his "svelte period"), playing wink-wink with a film archetype made famous by Scorsese and De Niro. Claire later seeks emotional consolation via the bearing of a child - it's unclear if this is a repudiation of her former lifestyle or the ultimate indulgence in it. We're left to judge this for ourselves.
The film is sexual but not sexy. The only time we can reasonably certain of Claire's pleasure in the sex act is during a tryst with Elton after he agrees to help pay off her debts. Like Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher, Cache, Funny Games), writer/director Lodge Kerrigan is consistently indicting the audience of its crimes (remember those reflective surfaces of the opening). Just as Claire cannot experience true intimacy, neither can we. The camera is a voyeur, frequently recording Claire's passionless sex with johns from across the room, around corners, through the crack of a door left ajar, and if we still didn't get it, reflected on a blackened television screen. All the while, she has the bored/wounded look of an aging porn star, her eyes - those windows of the soul - serving less to show us what lies within than reflect the world without.
Interesting footnote: Lodge Kerrigan would later direct a film called In God's Hands that had to be abandoned after severe damage to the negative (it starred Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard). Steven Soderbergh was a producer on that film, as he would be on Kerrigan's incredible picture, Keane. That film is available on DVD with cuts by both director and producer, an interesting exercise in filmschoolishness.
Movie Review: A STARK LOOK AT AT HUMANANITY
Summary: 4 Stars
The tag for this movie could easily be - people suck so don't bother trying to form a relationship with anyone. The director portrayed a dark and stark look at human relationships. This film is chock full of atmosphere but had too many loose threads for a perfect rating.
We watch as Claire Dolan says and does whatever a man wants in order to have sex with them. She needs the money to pay off a debt she owes to this older man. This "friend" of her parents has been forcing her to prostitute herself to pay off a debt incurred by her mother's care in a nursing home? Scenes between these two characters are tense and the screen vibrates with violent emotions.
Claire gets the heck out of Dodge and runs away once her mom dies, hoping to escape and reconnect with extended family. Claire yearns for real intimacy and finds a relationship with another desperate soul. Then odd things start to happen and we are not surprised by the reappearance of the older man. He has tracked her down. This time we see the heartless violence of this man as he orders her back to work.
I cringed whenever Claire tried to forge emotional bonds. It was heartbreaking to watch Claire talk about her mother's death to a stranger who merely smiled at her. The sexual encounters are so cold or cruel. Especially the scene where a man professes to be repelled by her and the situation, degrading her verbally, and then pays to have sex with her. Claire's new boyfriend does not last long and easily moves on with his life, getting married and starting a family. This film is so bleak and shows the utter isolation of mankind despite any attempts to the contrary. Claire Dolan is one messed up woman and her solution of having a child so she too could experience love is a disaster just waiting to repeat itself.
I appreciate the director's view but I had problems with the huge mess left at the end. Why was this old man intent on ruining Claire's life? There is a vague reference to "knowing" her since age 12 but nothing is ever defined about their relationship. The whole plot hinged on this odd relationship but it was never explained. There is also the whole "Claire" and "Lucy" identity issue. Claire used the name "Lucy" when working but the boyfriend discovered two separate identification cards with seemingly different women in the photos. Are they the same person or does she have a sister? We do see a woman walk down the street that has the boyfriend staring hard. Is it the woman from the Lucy I.D.? This is left up to the viewer to decide. I thought it meant that we all have to potential to be different people but that might be the optimist in me and there is little room for happy thoughts in this film.
This movie ultimately left me frustrated by all the questions thrown out there but maybe that was the point? Life rarely provides answers.....
Movie Review: If you like artistic films, then this is a good film
Summary: 4 Stars
You would think that from some of the reviews of this film, that it is one of the great movies of all time - a classic. And I can see how some people could see that. I will say that it is a good artistic film. It is a film that works on many levels, where setting, music, and photography could be see to meld together into one large portrait that resembles that of a masterpiece work of art. Like a painting by Monet, for example. As to whether or not it is a film I would personally like to see or rather keep may be another matter.
It is a thinking man's movie. A movie that serves a good purpose in exposing some of the darker and more negative aspects of life. If we do not put the spotlight on what is wrong in the world, then there can be little hope for whatever healing is needed to address the issue that is brought up by the film. Or at least that is one interpretation that I came away from the film. Although this film can be interpreted in several other ways because of the way it was made.
Others may not like this type of film because the subject matter is somewhat depressing. And still may not like the direction in which the director decided to execute the story. But this is art. And not everybody likes the same thing when it comes to art.
Personally, and subjectively, I will say that I thought some scenes were a bit over the top. And even though this is a film about prostitution, I thought there were way too many "love-making" scenes in the movie. Some of it was a bit unnecessary. Some of the best scenes, imo, you can find on youtube. Overall, a great artistic film and just a good, but not great, film overall, imo.
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