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Memorable, crazy movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Metamorphosis of a woman into someone else. Not only her, but also people surrounding her, including inanimate objects. What an original and unique plot! A gripping plot, without any dull moment! Both Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci have acted excellently, without any flaw. I love fantasy and surreal movies. This is a fine example of how a fantasy movie should be. Even though this movie has been classified under horror genre, there is no horror element in this movie. After watching this movie, I had both feelings of understanding the movie as well as not understanding the movie. It's a unique feeling. I enjoyed every bit of this movie. This movie has been clearly underrated by people who don't understand fantasy/surreal movies. Kudos to the director for making such an extraordinary movie.

It is clear Jeanne, a young writer is having some problems dealing with rejection. Her new book, a sure winner, is turned down at the start of the film by her editor. Jeanne, who appears to be a middle class woman with a nice husband and family, begins imagining things. The child she sees outside her apartment looks familiar to her, yet, she has not a clue about how that girl fits into her life.It is clear that Jeanne is having a lot of doubts about herself. Slowly, her life spins out of control. Jeanne has a special thing about Italy, so she must go there in order to find out what is really going on. As she arrives there, things get out of hand. The woman she thought was her mother is now working at her family's restaurant. Before that, Jeanne changes in front of our own eyes to become a different person. Pursuing a not too clear past comes as a shock and a surprise to the viewer.This French film conceived and directed by Marina De Van, is puzzling at best. It is obvious everything one is watching is happening in her mind. Ms. De Van's tale of suspense presents a lot for the audience to absorb. It is not an easy movie to sit through and it demands a lot from the viewer who is easily confused as Jeanne is seen as a different person, with a different husband to boot.The allure in watching "Don't Look Back" was the presence of two popular actresses, Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci. Both actresses have done much better work before, and frankly, this film does not add much luster to their otherwise good film careers. Andrea Di Stefano and Thierry Neuvic are seen as Gianni and Teo.

I must admit I envy the viewers that raved about this film in their reviews. My intelligence is not that vast. In reality, my intelligence is quite-quite limited, so I can only say that if during the first 15 minutes or so of watching this movie I was enthralled with it, little by little, because of its incredibly twisted story line, I was starting to have so many doubts and questions about the goings on on the screen, that eventually I lost interest in this very confusing dark movie.Many-many things don't make any sense, for example, Bellucci, all of a sudden develops a very noticeable limping --no explanation for it-- in order to lose it completely for the next scene and thereafter. What?What happened? Was she surgically intervened from an old crippling paralysis while the lights were set for the next scene or was just a shoe too small given to her by an unscrupulous wardrobe mistress? The change of actresses was done digitally in a very fascinating way, like in "The Legend of the Wolf", but much more subdued.The intervention of digital effects in straight movies will be, from now on, a fascinating tool to tell stories and also because unexpected in this kind of movies. Well, the whole thing attempted to be a superb movie, but it fell down on its face with a fatal crush.

I believe this might be the first collaboration between S. Marceau and M. Belucci. Though I'm not sure about that, I am sure about the fact, that both are not only astonishingly good looking, but can act! Which is something that is needed here. The story has to have solid acting to hold itself above water (so to speak).There is quite a bit of CG going on here, which might distract some people, but it is necessary and helps the story move along. Unfortunately the very strong beginning almost gets lost completely toward the ending. "It's just another one of those", might be one of the reactions this movie gets (that's me assuming).On other news, Sophie stays completely clothed, but Monica as ever is not afraid to show a little "flesh". But don't expect anything too arousing, with the things that are going on ... I hope to see both of them in another movie ... and maybe it will be possible to top that (it actually is very possible).