Have you ever been to a vacation spot in the off season?
It’s cheaper, there’s less crowds, and in many ways it’s still the same pleasant trip. But it isn’t really the same thing. The crowds are smaller because the weather is worse, the hotels are cheaper because nobody wants to stay there. Generally speaking, as good of a time that you may have, there is just something off about the whole experience, just because the time isn’t right.
Mathieu (Guillaume Canet) is nearly 50 and despite being a world famous A-list actor he is plagued by self-doubt. The next step in his career was supposed to be a leap to theatre in a production with a brilliant script and talented director. However, 4 weeks before the show was to begin Mathieu has gotten cold feet and pulled out. He flees to a small beachside resort town in the winter season and checks into a wellness spa for thalassotherapy (various seawater therapies). Lost and alone, yet hounded by fans, Mathieu won’t find any respite with these hippies.
But out of the blue he receives a letter from the past changing everything. Alice (Alba Rohrwacher) is a beautiful and talented pianist he dated some 15 years earlier. Now, like him, married and with a child, she has settled into her new life. But also like him, she is unfulfilled and as the former lovers reconnect, they reignite that spark Mathieu cut short years ago. Together again, they begin to question the choices they’ve made in the past and where they should go from here.
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or nominated filmmaker Stéphane Brizé brings us a love story like only the French can. Ample amounts of comedy are stripped away in Out of Season to reveal an extremely heartfelt and melancholic story of two people for which time is their greatest enemy. With reflections of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset (1995), Brizé makes us ponder on the choices we make and hard truths about why we make them.
Paramount to being a romantic drama with a difference, is that both of our protagonists have lived their romantic stories already. Both are happily (for the most part) married already and are living their own full lives. Attempting to rekindle a relationship which already failed once can only lead to heartbreak in one way or another. But what Brizé explores, is the idea that what if the person you’ve chosen to spend the rest of your life with was not actually your true love?
Out of Season feels like a light-hearted affair. At first as we witness the leading man Mathieu hopelessly out of his element. But soon as we see the regret, it becomes clear that this is a man who has it all but feels completely alone. This pseudo-science resort is the exact sort of place a movie star would relax in, but it’s just a sad place. What’s more, he’s extremely unhappy thinking himself a coward in life and Canet plays this diverse role of comedy and drama beautifully.
It is not until catching up once more with Alice that Mathieu feels some peace. She too should be content in her nest, but there’s something missing. We see much more of Alice‘s family life and while it’s all picture perfect, something is off. Brizé does an amazing job of presenting her outwardly happy life full of friends and family, yet inwardly she’s just as much in a lonely a place as Mathieu‘s off season resort.
The chemistry between the two actors on screen is exquisite, with this not being about overwhelming passions or the like. It is a very sombre affair that these two find themselves in and the movie can be a slightly depressing experience. The music by Vincent Delerm is great at setting the mood against the chilly beachside resort town. Pacing in Out of Season is purposefully slow and that as well adds to the sad yet beautiful experience.
Not a “will they/won’t they” but more of a “should they/shouldn’t they” love story, Stéphane Brizé and his perfectly cast leads take us on a journey in Out of Season which has us considering our own regrets in life. If we had the option now to hit the reset button, would we? Or as tempting as it may be, has that time for it passed, and should we just let go and move on?
Out of Season is in cinemas from December 5.