Against the Wind DVD Review
Summary: The film is not as frothy as some of Tatou’s recent outings like Beautiful Lies and Delicacy, yet fans of the Gallic beauty will not be disappointed by this deftly handled dramatic turn.
3.75
For fans
Distributor: Madman
Runtime: 88 mins
Rating: M
Reviewer: Simon Black
One morning, Sarah (Audrey Tatou) vanishes, leaving her husband Paul (Benoit Magimel, Little White Lies) and their two young children reeling, without a word as to her whereabouts or a clue about when she will return. Paul tries to sustain some sense of normalcy and after a year, in an attempt to start over, he reluctantly returns to his coastal home town. There he takes a job as a driving instructor, reunites with his estranged brother and befriends a local police officer (Isabelle Carré). But still he dreams of Sarah, refusing to let go. Why did she leave, and will she return?
Against the Wind (known as Des Vents Contraires in its native tongue and Headwinds in the US) is a solid, gently resonant feature from actor-turned-director Jalil Lespert. Audrey Tatou’s prominent billing and salient box-cover visage are a little misleading – as other reviewers have noted, her total screen time runs to less than 15 minutes – yet the rest of Lespert’s carefully assembled cast prove more than equal to the task at hand, wringing a subtle humanity from a script that could easily have descended into melodrama.
The film is not as frothy as some of Tatou’s recent outings like Beautiful Lies and Delicacy, yet fans of the Gallic beauty will not be disappointed by this deftly handled dramatic turn.
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