Irreversible

Gaspar Noe does a lot of good in the filmmaking. The camera movemens are expressionistic and geared toward the feelings in the film. They also display enough imagination that easy categorization is out the window. The first twenty minutes can be described as a nightmare. Noe does enough to alarm the audience before making them numbed. The story and screenplay have the problems. Noe is depicting a brutal segment of the world. Uncomfortable scenes are set in very uncomfortable places. OK, but Noe loses confidence when the personal problems of the characters begin to be shown in the most exagerrated ways. Cassel's out of control behavior being shown in a rampant drug and sex binge has to be the most obvious way to show a character trait. Also each scene becomes easily identifiable for what's it is trying to say about the characters. This minimizes the importance of the filmmaking that is trying to express those feelings because the story seems hell bent to lay them out. If Noe was able to marry his outstanding filmmaking to a proper story of substance and nuance, Irreversible would be an outstanding success.