Rust And Bone
Jacques Audiard
The story: Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is an out-of-work former boxer with a young son in tow. He turns up at his sister’s place to live and finds a job as a bouncer for a night club. He meets Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) there and their paths cross again after the killer whale trainer loses her legs in a horrific accident. Based on Craig Davidson’s 2005 short story collection of the same name.

In the original short story Rocket Ride, it is a young man who loses his leg to the orca he performs with in a marine park show. Director and co-writer Jacques Audiard changes the gender of the character in order to combine strands from several stories into one film.
In doing so, he has crafted an unlikely love story from what sounds like lurid pulp fiction.
This is not the kind of romance served up in flabby romantic comedies churned out by Hollywood. Rather, it is about how two flawed people negotiate their way to a relationship.
In fact, it is almost like an anti-romance. The first time they lay eyes on each other is not a propitious meet cute. He breaks up a fight at the club and finds her at the centre of it, dressed sexily and hurt.
Later, after her accident, she chooses to reach out to him despite shutting out everyone else. Perhaps she feels protected in his presence or maybe, she is drawn to his strapping physicality.
Crucially, Ali does not tiptoe around her legless state. Neither does Audiard – he shows us the stumps wrapped in bandages, as Stephanie piggy-backs Ali into the sea and when the two have sex.
Yet the tone is neutral and matter- of-fact rather than fetishistic or sensationalistic.
The roles call for tough unsentimental performances and both leads deliver.
Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, 2007) has been getting all the attention for her turn which takes her from despair to guarded joy to a renewed sense of self when she finds herself in the unlikely position of managing Ali when he takes part in illegal kick-boxing matches.
Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, 2011) is just as good, if not better, as the restless and aimless man who finds an outlet for his frustrations in physical fights.
Ali has a rough brutishness to him and he continues to sleep with other women along with Stephanie.
But there is also a tenderness to him that Schoenaerts reveals gradually, not least through the interactions with his young son.
As the film wends on its surprising way, you go along for the ride as you are invested in the fate of the characters. Even though the ending feels a little rushed, whatever happiness they eventually eke out feels earned.
Audiard is one of the most exciting film-makers to have emerged in recent years, with films such as crime drama The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and prison drama A Prophet (2009).
A Palme d’Or contender, Rust And Bone cements that reputation as he finds the grace notes in a gritty tale of redemption and love.
(ST)