Competition review - VALLEY OF LOVE by Guillaume Nicloux

Huppert and Depardieu are brought together in Valley of Love by Guillaume Nicloux, in competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. But is the whole affair worth it?

Despite being past their prime, Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert are still huge draws in the international circuit. In Valley of Love, they are directed by Guilliame Nicloux, recently seen in the richly interesting film The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq. But the film is quite a poor and half hearted excercise that does no one, including the audience, any favours. 

Here, Depardieu and Huppert play former spouses meeting years after their last encounter to meet their estranged son, following a very worrying and enigmatic letter he sent them. Over the course of a number of days, they are both to be found in specific spots around Death Valley in the US, where their son says he will show up. The emotional side of the story is widely understated. 

Every element of the film seems very much under developed, and some downright random or unclear. For instance, the son has apparently committed suicide. Despite this, there are no hints at Valley of Love being particularly interested in the supernatural, so when the supernatural casually may invade the storyline, it seems more like a pretty unnecessary mcguffin.

Valley of Love is a film that is very much centred around the conversations between the two leading characters, who dominate the action on screen. The two are usually sitting somewhere, and pondering on what they did wrong, gradually revealing things about their current lives and inevitably getting closer and closer together after an initial clash. The lack of depth in the film frustratingly makes it feel like it is on autopilot. Furthermore, and this goes back to the initial point, Depardieu and Huppert show that they clearly are past their prime. 

Depardieu seems quite comfortable with allowing his character to seem pathetic, often seen half naked on screen and allowing his sweat glands to do more acting than him. Huppert, once marketed as the French answer to Meryl Streep, has played the same character of the traditionally snobbish French woman for years - aside from a tinge of comedy, there is essentially very little difference between her performance in Valley of Love and the one in Louder Than Bombs, both featured in competition and both equally as unimpressive. 

Aside from the scorching sun, There is a lack of warmth that contributes to a worrying lack of substance and a disheartening repetitiveness. And while the landscape of Death Valley is always stunning and cinematic. The dry and unbearably hot environment is provides the suitable backdrop to the story. However, everything else is just as arid. And that's not good.