TROUBLE EVERY DAY -----------------
Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo, "Buffalo '66") has a disturbing cerebral impairment - when aroused he wants to literally devour his partner. This affliction is obviously causing problems on his honeymoon in Paris with his adorable new bride June (Tricia Vessey, "Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai"). Shane chose Paris, however, to seek help at a libido clinic where an elusive doctor (Alex Descas, "Lumumba") is an expert in the problem due to the advanced illness in his wife Core (Beatrice Dalle, "Betty Blue"), in director Claire Denis' "Trouble Every Day."
Denis and her writing partner Jean-Pol Fargeau ("Beau Travail") take an idea worth exploring and completely lose their way. After the exceptional "Beau Travail," "Trouble Every Day" is a major disappointment.
The film begins intercutting between Core, who's lured a truck driver for a bloody feast along the roadside, and Shane, doting on his childlike bride on the plane to Paris. Core is found by Leo, who comforts her, buries her prey, and locks her up back home. Shane, noticing June's pulsing wrist vein as he kisses her tenderly, locks himself in the lavatory, overcome by visions of an alluring June in bed, drenched in blood.
June tries to find the romance in her honeymoon, but Shane must continually remove himself before consummating the wedding. His lust results in the gory death of a pretty hotel maid. Meanwhile, Leo desperately tries to find a cure while Core continues to kill. When two teenaged boys break into her house, a bloodbath ensues. Moments later, Shane, having tracked Leo to his home address, arrives and meets his feminine counterpart.
Denis is successful in creating a moody melancholy for the film's initial hour or so, but once she lets her love depraved leads meet, her story becomes a hopeless, unsatisfying muddle with a ridiculous wrapup (Shane buys June a puppy and says he wants to go home). Her metaphors don't fit her storyline and events become confused, as if edited (Nelly Quettier, "Beau Travail") at random.
Perhaps Denis's most serious problem is the casting of her lead. Vincent Gallo, while possessing that heroin chic look, is simply too weirdly reprehensible to be believable as a tender lover. When his character states that 'after graduate school, a lot of companies made offers,' the only possible response is laughter. Who would hire this guy, let alone marry him? Tricia Vessey, however, brings a sweetness to her role as the innocent June. Vessey has a gamine-like quality that suggests a young Jane Fonda crossed with Mia Farrow. Her clear blue eyes radiate love.
The gorgeous Dalle plays the succubus as emotionally blank, which is appropriate for her advanced condition. Dalle revels in the gore, giving it an edge of eroticism. She keeps her last victim alive like an ER nurse while she continues to eat him alive. Descas makes Leo tragic with his calming care, but his character is given little opportunity to flesh out.
"Trouble Every Day" does have a standout and that's Agnes Godard's cinematography. Her lighting and framing produce beautiful images - Leo digging in tall weeds, lit in the reddish glow of a car's headlights - Shane's gaze at his wife's nude body in the bath. Original music by Tindersticks underscores the doomed romantic tone.
"Trouble Every Day" is gorgeous to look at, but as paean to love it's bloodless.
C-
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