Orpheline

A wishy-washy, completely uninteresting French drama that bases the movie on these three female characters who have a closer relationship that might be apparent at first glance and who are played by three ultra-gorgeous French actresses (Adéle Exarchopoulos, Adéle Haenel and Soléne Rigot) and then there’s also one ultra-gorgeous French-speaking American (Gemma Arton). As far as the plot goes, I didn’t even manage to follow this atypically told story. Not only was I awfully bored, I also didn’t find it interesting at all. I kept getting lost and at the same time, I kept trying to figure out the meaning behind the scenes and their meaningfulness for the (non)story. It’s a shame. The casting of these actresses is A++, I’d watch that any time. The rest is a disappointment. (21.11.2016)

Though Orphan has an ambitious narrative concept, it suffers from haphazard execution. It is a film that wants to be mysterious, but instead is just confusing. Though it doesn’t underestimate the viewers and lets them find their bearings in the non-chronological narrative, it doesn’t do much to spark their curiosity. Instead of the individual stories posing and answering similar questions and forming a coherent whole, they come across as a quartet of autonomous short films without a point or much coherence, a quartet of unfulfilled promises. At the end, the nymphomaniac protagonist is as unreadable as she was at the beginning, or rather she remains the embodiment of a male fantasy, a beautiful promiscuous creature without depth, who enjoys satisfying people of both genders and needs nothing more out of life than sex and money. The male characters, most of whom are defined only by their aggressive behaviour, don’t come off any better. Though the film is a failure overall, it manages to be pleasing in its individual details, such as the consistent visual style, economical editing and the raw acting performance of Adèle Haenel. Because of her, I would rather see a film that cares more about the characters than about the originality of the narrative structure. 55% (13.11.2016)