SnoopyStyle
Isabelle is on a family beach holiday in the south of France. Her father is long gone with his own young family in Italy. She is about to turn 17. She loses her virginity to hunky Felix but it's not as great as she expected. A few months later, she's working as a high class call girl claiming to be 20 year old Lea. Her elderly client Georges dies from a heart attack during sex. She leaves him behind. Later, the police contacts her mother after tracking her down.Marine Vacth is playing a cool aloof hot girl. I'm not sure if she's the next great thing. She doesn't do much more than be that young and confused girl. She is giving a limited acting range. Director and writer François Ozon delivers a paper thin plot. It doesn't give much insight into Isabelle's inner thoughts. There are no simplistic answers. It basically gives no answers. It has a nice cameo at the end but it doesn't use it to full advantage either.
jcnsoflorida
Nytimes describes director Ozon's oeuvre as uneven and, while I agree, this is one of his better outings. It's slowish and without much drama but I believe all that's intentional. One of the many fascinating things about Jeune & jolie, for me, is how clearly it is not aimed at American auds, who would certainly expect more drama from the material Almost comically absent from J & j is antihero Isabelle's school life. She attends a good Paris secondary school but we never see her study. Maybe she doesn't need to. In any case, the film is obviously not about her formal education. Others have mentioned Belle de Jour. Yes! B j (the film) is almost 50 years old, so why not another take? Look at how they are alike and different. No surrealism in this latter-day version but the languidness is purposeful. Why? Ozon wrote and directed, and if we put aside our expectations and constantly wonder why he makes the choices he makes here, we won't get many answers. But we do have an understated film --IsaBelle de Jour?-- that is not easy to dismiss. Underrated, too.
Normande Poirier
The story goes nowhere and ends fizzling out. In the movie, juvenile prostitution is presented as an innocent passage in the life of young adolescent girls. Some sort of victimless game. The plot is very weak and the characters lack consistency. They are vague and their role is not clear.Spoiler ***Everything revolve about insane sex and heavy lies***. The scenario is not credible nor convincing. At times, the movie seems a documentary of some sort. With this production, it is obvious that François Ozon pleased himself filming young and pretty Marine Vacth from every conceivable angles. Those who don't share the enthusiasm of François Ozon for the sex-appeal of Marine will not find any interest here.
Niklas Pivic
This film is quite beautiful in more than one way. It weirdly reminds me of what Marilyn Manson said when interviewed in "Bowling For Columbine", when Michael Moore asked him what he'd say to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community: "I wouldn't say a single word to them. I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."Isabelle is the lead character in this film and as such, she leads. But not as much by talking constantly or doing a lot of extravagant stuff, as in most Hollywood-esque films; of course, Ozon's films aren't really Hollywood, thank Bog.She does as she pleases, and we're left to ponder her inner life, which is not spelled out to us. Her family life is interesting, especially where her mother and brother are concerned. Speaking of which, most of her relations with other people are interesting and her "reactions" to them left me interested a little longer.The scene where the bridge-with-the-locks is, to me, the least interesting and left a schmaltzy and redundant impression, yet all in all, the film works. Not one of Ozon's best, but definitely not one of his worst, and compared with other directors' works, this is a vital shot in the arm.
AD
