Lemming

Something is rotten in the south of France, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. It starts when a Scandinavian rodent somehow finds its way into the plumbing of a sweet suburban couple. Soon the domestic dream that Laurent Lucas and Charlotte Gainsbourg have created descends into a nightmare of sex, violence, and bizarre behavior. So what if the film makes no sense? Director Dominik Moll gives it a sophisticated sheen, 'œat once sinister and quietly comical.' He clearly knows his Hitchcock, said Jan Stuart in Newsday. This 'œsingularly creepy thriller' chips away at its protagonists' carefully orchestrated lives with 'œplayful sadism,' craftily playing on the audience's expectations and punctuating the dark mood with sudden, intense surprises. Too bad that Lemming switches, in its second half, from taut psychological thriller to cheap supernatural shocker. Subtlety isn't a part of this film's vocabulary, said Stephen Whitty in the Newark Star-Ledger. Take that title. It's obviously an indictment of the couple's suburban conformity. But surely Moll could have found an appropriate metaphor closer to home, instead of inexplicably importing one from the fjords. The best way to view this film is to ignore the subtext, and enjoy the first-rate performance of Charlotte Rampling, 'œwho owns the film,' as the conniving woman who brings the couple's whole world crashing down.

Rating: Not rated

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