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In one of François Ozon’s favorite compositions, recurring at the beginning and end of his new Time to Leave, a character is on a beach, between the ocean and a camera that, like the character, faces square to the expanse of water. It is, unmistakably, a reckoning with the Great Unknown, but with the space of contemplation shielded from the camera, a shroud of mystery surrounds the character’s interior life. Potently unreachable, it’s the perfect shot for Time to Leave, a movie about Romain (Melvil Poupaud), a gorgeous young gay guy (this being an Ozon movie) hiding his terminal cancer from his loved ones. But the scenarios Ozon conjures — rough sex, family tell-offs and reconciliations, photo albums and childhood flashbacks — are unspecific Kübler-Ross illustrations; they could be anyone’s grief.
Only the final scenes, wherein Romain conceives an acquaintance’s baby in a threesome with her and her sterile husband (essentially a cosmopolitan twist on the legacy-grasp plotline), see Ozon’s mundane visuals reaching for a more expressive subjectivity. Maybe Ozon’s slog-towards-inspiration is honest, but he’s on autopilot most of the way.
Opens July 14
Only the final scenes, wherein Romain conceives an acquaintance’s baby in a threesome with her and her sterile husband (essentially a cosmopolitan twist on the legacy-grasp plotline), see Ozon’s mundane visuals reaching for a more expressive subjectivity. Maybe Ozon’s slog-towards-inspiration is honest, but he’s on autopilot most of the way.
Opens July 14
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