Dir/Wri: Olivier Assayas | Cast: Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nine D’Urso, Nora Hamzawi, Maud Wyler, Dominique Reymond, Magdalena Lafont | France, drama 105′
In this uneventful little drama Olivier Assayas takes us back to a time most remember with a sigh and a sinking heart: the first pandemic lockdown.
Suspended Time certainly captures the sentiment, but let’s hope it’s the last of this rash of Covid-set films with nothing to say: a time some found reassuring, others restrictive. Endless days in the sunny Spring of 2020 when details loomed large, such as cleaning everything to within an inch of its life, as the world was thrown into forced navel-gazing and anxiety.
Assayas has assembled a watchable cast led by Vincent Macaigne as Paul, a laid back journalist enjoying the slightly angst-ridden months in his family’s bijou mansion deep in the Chevreuse Valley, not far from Paris, a backcloth Paul amply fleshes out in reflective monologues that take us back to a happy childhood.
Ensconced with his broadcaster brother Etienne (Lescot), Paul realises the two have nothing now in common. Joining is his slightly neurotic girlfriend Morgane (d’Urso), and Etienne’s other half Carole (Hamzawi) who are both sketchily drawn in a mildly amusing comedy of manners.
Suspended Time certainly looks very pretty thanks to the reappearance of Eric Gautier as the director’s longtime DoP, the two last worked together on Personal Shopper and that’s perhaps Assayas’ most interesting film of late, if you don’t count the TV series Irma Vep. Sadly Assayas fails to strike any emotional chords between his key players in a drama that’s pleasant enough but instantly forgettable. @MeredithTaylor
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