Dir: Thomas Kruithof | Cast: Virginie Efira, Arieh Worthalter | Drama France 99′
A drama set during the French “Gilets Jaunes” crisis (2018-2020) when people from all walks of life got together to end austerity measures and push for constitutional change.
Karine and Jimmy, are described in the distributor notes of Ablaze as “a deeply connected couple” who face a crucial moment in their relationship when Karine’s fervent political activism begins to destroy their life as a family. So they must confront a heart-wrenching choice: ‘remain true to their unwavering convictions or fight to save the bond that once felt unbreakable’.
A brilliant premise for a film that nevertheless feels rather underwhelming by failing to mine the dramatic potential of the clash between a long term relationship and sociopolitical crisis. It could also just be the end of their marriage through lack of common goals or interests. So it’s a classic scenario: Arieh Worthalter is certainly believable as a hard-working lorry driver with his own haulage business desperately putting in the hours on the international motorways to keep up with fierce competition from other companies. And his wife Karine, an employee with a tedious job. There is nothing that drives them forward as a couple, outside work. A common situation and one that often leads to a break-up.
Aiming for an international audience, French director Kruithof has miscast Virginie Efira as Karine, a role far better suited to Karine Viard or even Laure Calamy with their spirited style and ability to play strong but vulnerable women. For all her talents, Efira brings that same brittle hardness to her woman on the factory floor. In a one note performance she tries for political conviction but this is more the case of being caught in a job that lacks stimulation, so she turns to activism for the passion if offers, making a new group of female friends in the process. Travelling up and down the country with them, back-pack and thermos flask in hand, she often leaves the family home, and a couple of placid self-contained teenagers who are merely there to serve the narrative with a ‘boof’ and a shrug of the shoulders.
Karine and Jimmy are an ordinary middle-class couple but their pairing comes across as just bland, although we do see them embracing, there is nothing that makes us care for their plight. The scenes of protest on the ‘Rond-point’ are more inspiring as the ‘yellow jacket’ activists, from various political persuasions and backgrounds, campaign peacefully about the rising price of diesel, while Jimmy is busy saving his business. Kruithof, best known for the equally politically-charged but rather lacklustre drama Promises (2021) adds dramatic heft by picturing the police threatening the protesters and shutting down their demonstration and Karine even being arrested on spurious grounds but later released with a caution. According to a newspaper source some of the protesters are still in jail. The judge advises Karine to go home and be content with her middle class life. Can you really imagine a judge saying that?.
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