recommended

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

We're in for a shock. A rape from the get go, we expect a rape story. Not at all. It is a psychopathic character story. The woman victim is acquointed to violence, has issue with the police, and is strong. We get it. The guy might have been lucky to get her by surprise. But this is a french film and it is not going to be your regular hero's revenge at all! Hilarious at times, dramatic at times, our bunch of psychopaths keeps us guessing. Excellent!

I feel like I swallowed a cockroach after watching this. Boring, unbelievable, endless, inconsistent, cringeworthly acted sickening sexual scenes - and no sense or story. Critics are clearly out of their minds. A complete waste of time and mindspace.

Apparently so controversial that several American actors passed up on the opportunity to play the lead part and Paul Verhoeven had to take his long-awaited return (to form at least) out of the US entirely, this subversive pseudo psycho-sexual thriller represents a rather unique take on the tried and tested rape-revenge genre, moving far away from pure exploitation and instead heading into an enthralling exploration of the taboo desires of slightly sociopathic people. There's nothing really conventional about 'Elle (2017)' and that might be what makes it so compelling, with the absolutely phenomenal screenplay brought to life by equally engaging, rivetingly realistic power-house performances, and the fact that each intriguing new layer just feels so natural despite the brazenly bizarre tone and inconsistent pacing is a testament to the rich character development and world building that makes the piece seem so wholly believable. 7/10

It is often unhelpful to try to squeeze a film into a single main idea and that is even more true if the film is a good one. But I am going to break my own rule here to talk about the latest film by Paul Verhoeven. Not that I think Elle lacks nuance, but without seeing the thread that binds this film together, the intentionally provocative tone of the film can detract from its merits and push the film into lazy pigeonholes: misogynistic, exploitative, incoherent and if you are looking for a longer list of pejorative adjectives, Richard Brody's review in the New Yorker is an excellent thesaurus.Elle starts with a rape scene and what follows is how the main character, Michèle, deals with this presumably traumatic experience. I say presumably because her reaction to this incident throughout the film defies all expectations of how anyone might react to an assault. After the intruder leaves her house, she gets up, with some difficulty of course, sweeps the broken plates off the floor, takes a bath and orders takeout for dinner. And when she finally realizes that the rapist after all was her neighbour, someone whom she happened to have a crush on, the viewer is confronted with another what-the-heck moment when she, this time willingly, gets herself beaten down again. Let's start with the easiest hypothesis to refute. This film is plainly not about the damage rape can do to the victims, the film doesn't even try to make the protagonist likable enough to get the viewer's sympathy. A revenge thriller with a strong female cast? Surely there is an element of revenge in the film but it is hard to reduce it to a revenge story when the protagonist is drawn to her rapist. A misogynist story, disguising itself behind a criticism of conventional morality to show rape as a common fantasy and not all that terrible in reality? If she, a woman with a strong and dominant personality throughout the film, subconsciously yearns submission, why does she have to ruin her dream came true by taking her revenge at the end? And here is why I think a single main force behind Michèle's actions can save us from this confusion, and that force is not morality, or a sense of justice or shame or anger, or the society's pressure, but the agency to do what she desires to do in spite of all that. What the film is doing here is highlighting agency by taking the notion to its unnerving and sometimes darkly comical extreme. After the assault happens, she is physically hurt but mentally settled enough to order a takeout. She doesn't call the cops not because she is embarrassed or afraid of telling people what happened, she tells her ex-husband and friends about the story in the restaurant scene after all, but why bother with the cops if she can take matters in her own hand? Her reaction is no different every time someone reminds her of her mass murderer father out of spite, she keeps calm and carries on. But why does she willingly fall prey to the neighbour's sadistic behaviour? Is she a masochist? Well, the last thing she probably cares about is we pondering what she is or she is not.This is not to say that Elle should be seen as a manual on how to handle sexual assault, or as a realistic character study of Michèle and her motives. What the film does though, so effectively and so outlandishly, is bring to life not perhaps the most lovable but a memorably strong character that leads her life with the ultimate agency.