Passion is a word casually thrown around in the movies; so few films come anywhere near it, but Jacques Audiard's film really is passionate, surging out of the screen like a tidal wave. Brutal realism is offset by romanticism, idealism, even a flawed human grandeur. There is an insistent swoon in the sunlit moments of epiphany and in the soundtrack, mixing pop tracks – Katy Perry, Bruce Springsteen, the B-52s – with a conventional orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat.
The story is adapted from short stories by the Canadian author Craig Davidson: Ali, artlessly and unselfconsciously played by newcomer Matthias Schoenaerts, is a Belgian guy who has been earning some cash as a bouncer and security guard, hoping to make it big in boxing and kickboxing. (The title refers to the taste in your mouth you get on taking a hard punch.) Ali hitchhikes to the south of France with his young son, Sam (Armand Verdure), from a failed relationship where he has arranged to crash with long-suffering sister Anna (Corinne Masiero).
It is here in Antibes that he meets Stéphanie, played with piercingly shrewd intelligence and sensuality by Marion Cotillard. She works at a local marine tourist park, training whales which flip and twirl out of the water at her command. Bizarre catastrophe strikes, and Stéphanie's life is utterly changed. She finds that the only person she can talk to is Ali, who is utterly straightforward and unembarrassed about everything, including sex. Their relationship becomes a kind of miracle, bringing Stéphanie out of a terminal depression: its miraculous benefits for selfish Ali only become apparent later in the movie, when he learns humility.
This is a tremendously acted and directed drama, and the spark of love between Cotillard and Schoenaerts after they have sex for the first time is exciting and moving. The sheer quality of these two performances prevents the film from seeming contrived, and the symbolism of the whale does not become self-conscious; in fact, it does not even seem like a symbol at all. Audiard's previous films have been intensely male, but this one gives a powerful role to Cotillard. I felt that the ending of the movie did not quite have the power of its first two acts, and I also felt that Cotillard's own presence is faded out in the final minutes. But what a love story.
