Isabelle Huppert wins the day.
While Paul Verhoeven's new film, Elle, is in French with English subtitles, after the first five or 10 minutes, the viewer entirely forgets that they are reading the dialogue. Not only does Elle open powerfully, but everything that follows is equally captivating. Although those who watch the film may never behave in the same way that these characters choose to, it is always clear exactly where the characters are coming from and each portrayal is dynamic.
An overly distilled description of Elle, which has a script from David Birke based on a novel by Phillipe Dijan, would explain it as a portrait of one woman, Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), and the way she grapples with having been raped by an intruder in her home. To put it simply, Huppert is magnificent in the role. She is mesmerizing on screen, with the ability to win over the audience with little more than a flick of her head or a half-uttered word.
The movie opens with this rape, and it is something that Michèle relives several times over the course of the film, wondering if she could have done something differently, if she could have stopped it. What Michèle doesn't do in the aftermath of the rape is call the police. She steadfastly refuses to get them involved for reasons that are at first unclear, but become very obvious—and understandable—over the course of the movie (to discuss this in any sort of depth feels like too much of a spoiler). Michèle definitely wants to find out who did it, but for reasons of her own.
At the same time, Michèle goes on with all the other aspects of her life, and there are many. Elle is not solely about Michèle's trauma, although it easily could be, it is about the whole of her life (which the rape, most certainly, does affect).
A wealthy woman, Michèle owns a video game company where she is not respected by the younger male workers, something that makes her wonder whether any of them might have been her attacker. She is also having an affair with Robert (Christian Berkel), who is the husband of Michèle's best friend and the co-owner of the company, Anna (Anne Consigny). Then, there is her mother, Irène (Judith Magre), who is seeing a much younger man (not for the first time). Michèle's son, Vincent (Jonas Bloquet) is something of a ne'er-do-well and, about to be a father, is stuck in a bad relationship with a horrible woman, Josie (Alice Isaaz). Plus, Michèle's ex-husband, Rochard (Charles Berling), is seeing someone new and Michèle worries that it might truly be love.
So, on and on it goes, with Verhoeven weaving in and out of the various stories, sometimes giving the audience something fearful—like when Michèle returns home one night to find the police present after her neighbor, Patrick (Laurent Lafitte), has reported finding and scaring away a suspicious person outside Michèle's house—and then switching to a truly funny moment, like the cutting way in which Michèle deals with her mother and her mother's boyfriend. Each performance is winning, each story is interesting, and the deftness with which they are combined into a single cohesive film is remarkable.
No matter how much else may be going on, the rape and the way in which Michèle processes and pursues it exists over everything. While few might suggest that Michèle's pursuit of the truth, and what she does with it, is healthy (that should be left to others to render a verdict), there is no doubt that she is a powerful character, a woman who is the master of her world and who refuses to stay a victim.
More than anything else, that is what Elle is about – a woman who has created her life and success and has done so while doing her best to remain in control of everything, even the horrific events in that life. Huppert brings this to life in a way that is truly wonderful to watch.
That said, Elle is not a movie for the squeamish. It can be bloody and violent, and distinctly uncomfortable to watch. It is a movie that is going to stay with you for a long time as well. But, it isn't just the horror of Michèle's experience that will stay with you, the difficulties of her family and friends will remain, as will much of the humor.
The Verdict
One doesn’t have to agree with the actions of a character in a movie to be mesmerized by the movie itself, and Elle is most definitely a film where few, if any, of the characters' actions represent the way many people would behave. However, there is never a single moment of doubt that these people would indeed proceed in this manner. In part, this is a testament to the acting, led by Huppert's completely captivating performance. It is a disturbing and joyful film at the same time, filled with both hate and hope. It is affecting cinema.
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