Rent From the Land of the Moon (2016)

too slow, unconvincing story - From the Land of the Moon review by BH

We gave up watching this film afte ran hour as we found the pace too slow and the characters and story unconvincing. You are much better off watching Marion Cottilard in "Two Days One Night."

slowly unwinding - From the Land of the Moon review by CP Customer

Slow paced and very engaging. Interesting story with a good twist in the tale. The acting is superb

The worst Twist ever seen - From the Land of the Moon review by RC

It is a beautiful film until the end. What a joke. Ending is appalling. Feel genuinely robbed and massively mislead. This could have been amazing but it's just nonsense.

Don't waste your time. I wish I hadn't invested in this.

Don't waste your time - From the Land of the Moon review by Alphaville

Bland tale of a young woman in the French countryside, told for no reason in flashback. She’s bored by petty rural life and so is the viewer. Compare the brilliant evocation of rural Italy in the wonderful Call Me By Your Name. It’s the kind of film that focusses on irrelevant inconsequential things. When it opens with close-ups of food being eaten by a family in a car, you know what you’re in for. There’s not much to say about it except to describe the oh-so-slowly developing plot, and if you know that there’s no point in watching the film at all. In fact watch the tell-all trailer and save two hours of your life.

Just read the book - From the Land of the Moon review by AS

The book was excellent, but does not translate very well to film. I found the film slow and confusing.

A great central performance let down by strange character choices & poor script - From the Land of the Moon review by TB

I’ve never been a huge fan of Marion Cotillard in the films I’ve seen her in. For example, in Inception, she came off as rather annoying and her character not relatable. I found myself wishing that Kate Winslet had been cast instead. Although I haven’t seen La Vie En Rose, after her Oscar win, there were a huge number of plaudits for her, and I had waited for the film where I could see why there was a huge fuss about her.

From the Land of the Moon is absolutely her film. She is the best thing in it and I was absolutely convinced by her character and acting, even though at times how it was written didn’t make her particularly likeable. I especially appreciated the complete fearlessness which she approached Gabrielle’s more extreme traits, giving a very vulnerable and unvarnished performance. It’s just a shame that the film itself is not deserving of her talents.

The worst thing about this film is that it takes an unbelievably long time to say not very much. There are flashes of brilliance, some beautiful landscapes and a good performance by Louis Garrel. But for me, the slowness never turned into a slow burn. It is simply a long drawn-out film. I will absolutely admit I was happy to keep watching, but there wasn’t the compulsion to want to get to the end, it was more simply to see where the film went.

I do appreciate the chances it takes and there absolutely will be an audience for it, but sadly the best I can say about it is that it was the first film which actually had a Marion Cotillard performance I enjoyed. I only wish the rest of it had lived up to this.