DVD Review - Lemming

This is the second film of Dominick Moll's that I've seen that has you sitting on the edge of your seat (the first one was With a Friend Like Harry). You could say that there is a bit of Alfred Hitchcock and a bit of David Lynch flowing through the film. And the screenplay, which was written by Moll and Gilles Marchand, has an eerie quality to it.

When we first meet Alain (Laurent Lucas) and Benedicte (Charlotte Gainsbourg) Getty we think that they are a pretty ordinary young couple. They have recently moved to the quiet area of Bel Air because Alain has just gotten a new job. Alain designs products for the home that are completely automated. He is good at what he does and well liked at his job. Benedicte used to work but has decided that she will take time off to fix up the house. Alain's boss Richard Pollock (Andre Dussolier) is very fond of Alain and he invites himself and his wife Alice (Charlotte Rampling) over to Alain and Benedicte's house for dinner. You can feel that something is in the works when Richard and Alice arrive very late. Richard is very apologetic but Alice barely says a word. It is obvious that she doesn't want to be there. After several very awkward minutes Alice goes on a rampage. She says that the reason they were late is because Richard was with another woman. Then she lashes out at her hosts. Richard apologizes again and they leave without finishing dinner. Later that night Alain can't sleep so he decides to try to fix the kitchen sink waste pipe that is clogged up. To his surprise he finds that a lemming somehow got into the pipe. As strange as it may seem the lemming is a foreboding symbol of things to come.

And this my dear reader is as much as I can tell you. Otherwise I would ruin the film for you. There are a number of twists and turns in this film and it really makes you put on your thinking cap. Nothing is cut and dry. There is a strong nightmarish quality about the film. As far as the acting goes, everyone does a good job and Rampling is quite scary.

So if you like films with ambiguous endings then this film is for you. I have my own theory and I hope that other people will see this film because I would love to discuss and dissect it with them.