Luc Besson’s latest movie, June and John, playing in theaters throughout Israel, features the stunning visuals and whimsical style for which the director is known, yet it bogs down under a lazy, derivative premise and a cartoonish, clichéd script.
Besson, who made such stylish thrillers as The Fifth Element, Leon: The Professional, and La Femme Nikita, has foundered for years, until he made last year’s DogMan, a dark psychological thriller that was something of a return to form for him. That movie had a few twists that June and John lacks.
The new film is a throwback to the days when eccentric female protagonists were called “kooky.” There is a whole subgenre of movies in which wild, uninhibited young women exhort the repressed men they meet to go out and really live their lives with gusto and passion, such as The Sterile Cuckoo, starring Liza Minnelli, or Something Wild, starring Melanie Griffith.
Often, these women are secretly fighting a terminal diagnosis or other hardship, which is meant to give some kind of pathos and complexity to their characters. Examples of this kind of movie include both versions of Sweet November (one starring Sandy Dennis and a remake with Charlize Theron), and more recently, Life in a Year.
June and John fits this mold neatly. John (Luke Stanton Eddy) is a comically withdrawn young man who crunches numbers for a Los Angeles bank and gets no joy out of life, popping tranquilizers just to make it through the day.
But suddenly, his life is filled with purpose when he glimpses a beautiful woman named June (Matilda Price) on a train going in the opposite direction and feels he must see her again.
After he makes contact with her via Instagram, she shows up in his office and pulls a gun on his mean coworkers, telling them off and instructing him to enjoy life. Renting a tent from a homeless man, they hide from the cops and make love.
Soon, they are on the run, taking refuge in empty palatial estates that are easy to find around the city, it seems, as she switches wigs frequently and figures out how to get them in and out of trouble. Not surprisingly, she soon reveals a secret that makes their time together even more precious to her, and they drive through the desert in a convertible and head for Las Vegas.
Wigs more interesting than film script
No one can be against living your life to the fullest and having as much fun as possible, so on one level, it’s easy to identify with John and his attraction to this mysterious, alluring woman.
But unfortunately, June’s wigs are much more interesting than the script. I liked the long, silver one with purple highlights she wears best when they first meet. Her real hair is close-cropped and brown, but Price is so beautiful and animated that she looks great no matter what color her hair is. A model-turned-actress, she also gets to wear a lot of floral minidresses, which is apparently what one wears when getting the most out of life.
Eddy is more than credible as the often stunned but appealing John, and his muted response to his soul-killing routine and dull job works. But while many wish someone would come along and sweep them out of their humdrum lives, I couldn’t help wishing that, for once, a movie presented a less clichéd way of finding one’s bliss.
Of course, John can’t swim and is afraid to jump into a pool in the mansion where they are hiding out, and June coaxes him and teaches him. Of course, there is a sky-diving scene. Of course, they cook delicious-looking tarts and quiches together. Much of it unfolds like a music video, and Besson has made quite a few.
Several of Besson’s early films featured underage or very young female characters, such as the one played by Natalie Portman at 12 in Leon: The Professional. Besson has been accused of sexual harassment several times and was acquitted, although there is no disputing the fact that his second wife, actress Maïwenn, gave birth to their daughter at the age of 16.
While his heroines may be a little older now, it seems that he still cannot create female characters with any depth. It’s hard to get caught up in a romance when the woman at the center of it acts more like an actress in an infomercial about living your best life than an actual human being.
Source:
www.jpost.com
