Synopsis: Gradually succumbing to dementia, George Laurent, the octogenarian patriarch of the Laurents is uncomfortably sharing his palatial manor in Calais with his twice-married son, Thomas, and Anne, his workaholic daughter who has taken over the family construction business. The urgent hospitalisation of Thomas’ ex-wife from a mysterious poisoning, leads his sulky 13-year-old daughter, Ève, to live with her father and his new wife, Anais. Undoubtedly, in this family, everyone has a skeleton in the closet. (IMDb)
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mathieu Kassovitz, Franz Rogowski, Fantine Harduin, Laura Verlinden, Toby Jones
Screenplay: Michael Haneke
Directed by: Michael Haneke
Those who have accustomed themselves with Haneke’s penchant for bleakness probably wondering whether the Austrian director has ditched his style into a more cheerful energy for his latest movie, the gleefully titled HAPPY END. But no need to worry, because this European master of grim is still true to his oeuvre. His latest entry is a story of an dysfunctional family filled with suicidal thoughts, adultery, depression and a psychopathic tendency. In other words, just another day in a Haneke-ian world.
With this film, it looks like Haneke wanted to incorporate his own take of technology; displaying scenes which were shot from a Snapchat-like phone app, CCTV recordings and also computer screen. But being Haneke, it can be taken as his critique for the medium, and how it can be used for many things other than what they were intended for; from voyeuristic views to the safe haven for private kinks. There’s a little critique for the refugee crisis in some scenes too (which I thought did not really handled well, but still a pretty nice touch on the topic of the insensitivity of the Laurents’ family to the world outside of their mansion).
Told through various storylines, which mostly were put together with such abrupt shifts, unfortunately made HAPPY END a little jumbled and harder to understand. Haneke’s films are an acquired taste, and a hit-and-miss for me. Although it’s a miss for me, there are some things that I can appreciate; from the performances (Huppert, Trintignant and Kassovits are great but the star of the show is the 13 year old Fantine Harduin) to the ending sequence that brilliantly captured the whole film. [B-/C+]
A copy of my review on Instagram.
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