Carmen: NZIFF Review

There's a lot of brooding dreaminess in Carmen, a film that occasionally sizzles with passion, but also seems to lack a narrative drive at times to propel it on to greatness.

Paul Mescal is Aiden, an inert and wayward marine whose life is going nowhere and Melissa Barrera stars as Carmen, a girl on the run constantly and whose escape puts her on a collision course with Aiden.

When the pair meet during a heated border patrol moment in Mexico, a split second decision pushes them further on the run - but with dark forces closing in, can the duo find the peace they need in each other?

Superbly cinematographed and sumptuously choreographed, Carmen is more a film that feels like an experiment on screen than a fully fleshed out narrative to engage.

 

But thankfully, Barrera and Mescal sizzle on screen together, igniting fires where really there should be none. It will feel aloof to many, with a somewhat stilted ebb and flow at times, yet most of what transpires in Carmen is visually compelling and hits at a more soulful level than perhaps expected - if you're in the right mood.

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s first film takes Bizet’s opera Carmen and tries to do something with it - but there are moments when it feels drawn out over a 2 hour run time, moments when expeditious editing could have eased out some more drama and less artfully shot scenes.

Yet, in moments such a dance during a fight or Barrera's appearance during a club, the movie soars, content to let its imagery do the talking and its characters less so.

Perhaps herein lies the rub of Carmen - it's not quite sure which way it wants to go and as a result it ends up being a watchable yet occasionally unfulfilling experience.