WILD GRASS Movie Review

I recently attended a screening of WILD GRASS, a film directed by Alain Resnais that is due in theaters July 2nd. It’s based on the novel “L’incident” by Christian Gailly and I had medium-high hopes for the film. Mainly because Alain Resnais has an impressive track record; he won the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The story is about a middle aged dentist named Marguerite who gets her purse stolen while buying shoes. When an older gentleman named Georges stumbles upon Marguerite’s wallet in a parking lot, it seems like this may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

However, the story isn’t as perfect as it seems. Georges isn’t exactly available for a relationship, also, his initial treatment towards Marguerite is closer to an angry stalker rather than that of a budding courtship. The only thing Georges and Marguerite have in common is that they seemingly have perfect lives but for some reason are unhappy.

The screening had 2 endings. If the first ending is chosen, I might give Wild Grass a 2.5 or a 3. The second ending includes an extra fifteen minutes of footage that ends with a scene that makes absolutely no sense and was in no way related to the rest of the film.

However, what really bothered me about Wild Grass is that it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. The characters shot off in twenty different directions that didn’t go anywhere. It felt like ridding a roller coaster that only goes up. A few times, I thought the film was doing a dream sequence, but all of it actually happened. This isn’t a film I would recommend, however, it you must watch it, I suggest taking lots of alcohol.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars