Clouds of Sils Maria

Films about different types of rivalry have been displayed in many forms throughout the years. In areas of competition, i.e. sports, siblings, even job hunting, we see rivalry, whether it be comedy or drama. We now have, yet another film to add to that never ending list and it's in the form of "Clouds of Sils Maria".

At the peak of her international career, Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous 20 years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked, by director Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eldinger), to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her sharp witted assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet, Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) with a penchant for scandal is to take on the role of Sigrid, and Maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself- basically a 'ghost' that comes back to haunt her.

Others to round out the cast are Johnny Flynn as Christopher Giles, Angela Winkler as Rosa Melchior, Hanns Zischler as Henryk Wald, Nora von Waldstatten as Actress in Sci-Fi movie, Brady Corbet as Piers Roaldson, Claire Tran as Maria's London assistant, Peter Farkas as Journalist in Zurich, Stuart Manashil as Maria's Agent, Aljoscha Stadelmann as Urs Kobler and Ben Posener as Journalist in London.

This was directed with such realism and finesse by Olivier Assayas ("Disorder" '86, "Winter's Child" '89, "Paris Awakens" '91, "A New Life" '93, "Irma Vep" '96, Les destinees" 2000, "Demonlover" '02, "Clean" '04, "Paris je taime" (segment- "Quartier des Enfrants Rouges") '06, "Boarding Gate" '07, "Summer Hours" '08, "Something in the Air" '12). The actors in this came across as seeing them as these actual characters, instead of actors in a film, especially Stewart. She acted so effortlessly that she it seemed like we were eavesdropping into this assistant's life, however Stewart is coming into her own as a very talented actor. Assayas also wrote this film as well. Whereas his ability in directing was clearly delineated in amazing ways, his writing came up a bit short. I know he's a veteran seasoned writer--this is not his first rodeo, but this was definitely too slow, and the continuity was off. Things got entirely too choppy and it was difficult to follow in places, not to mention that a good 15 minutes could have been cut to speed this up a bit. The acting was amazing--Binoche, Stewart and Moretz were solid and played off well with each other, but the writing could have been polished more.

Maybe this film would have been better as a comedy--albeit a subtle, dry comedy, but a comedy. When one is dealing with the area of rivalry and competition, sometimes comedy can be the safer bet over drama. If you go to see this, revel in the acting, because this will keep you riveted far more than the script.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                 Rated: R                                123mins.