TIFF 2021: Inexorable
TIFF 2021Fabrice du Welz’s new film is an exciting emotional thriller that rests its suspense and terror on the fairly simple stakes of a couple’s stability and their daughter’s loneliness. Inexorable is sort of like a well-played game of chess. The opening half of the game is an intricate although seemingly innocent configuration of emotional pieces – fragilities, sensitivities, power dynamics, decades-old secrets. However, their introduction and positioning set up a rousing mid-game and an adrenaline-charged emotional endgame. Inexorable may take a bit of time to set up, but once it does, it launches its kinetic dread and its characters’ out-of-control behaviour off a platform of firmly planted personalities and clearly understood consequences. Inexorable’s slow build turns into a frenzied emotional free fall, which is every bit a delight to watch.
The cast here is outstanding. Benoit Poelvoorde and Mélanie Doutie play Marcel and Jeanne, a couple who, along with their daughter, are relocating to Jeanne’s swank family home. The home is a slightly smaller Belgian Downton Abbey, only in modern times and with a diminished staff of one. Marcel is a struggling but once-successful novelist, and Jeanne is his publisher and family breadwinner. To appease their lonely daughter, Lucie (Janaina Halloy), during this move to a new place where she has no friends, the couple gets her a dog. And that’s the basic set up until a drifter (Alba Gaia Bellugi) shows up in time to save the pet from running away. The outward set up of the film may not feel like much, but these characters are several layers deep written with nuance and specificity of emotional need. Poelvoorde, Doutie, and Bellugi bring viability to their own various states of restlessness. They all have needs, but they also have various levels of confidence, life experiences, and coping mechanisms. The cast amply fill out this psychological and emotional space, sometimes with raw, cringe-inducing realism. Bellugi particularly gives a striking performance as the mysterious beauty who has both a propensity for self-harm and a hidden agenda.
Without getting into specifics and spoilers, Welz does a kick-ass job teasing suspense throughout. The adults’ actions, inaction, and consequences constantly impact the daughter’s well-being and behaviours. Sometimes, the drama and tension within Inexorable feels similar to what’s been done before plenty of times within the genre. An unhinged antagonist character brings havoc and danger to a good guy – a family in this case. However, Inexorable provides a subtle but important trickle-down impact on the daughter. Each familiar beat of the genre is followed by a realistic and bothersome outcome on Lucie. We really do get a sense that decisions by older generations have formative impacts on younger generations. This doesn’t make for new territory in the genre, of course, but rarely is it so organic. Marcel and Jeanne must navigate a frightening, disruptive element in their home and marriage, but Inexorable never forgets that Lucie still needs to be parented. It’s just another layer that adds to the final act’s engrossing unraveling.
Inexorable is also strikingly carnal at times, which effectively shakes things up. There is one sex scene in particular. And there is one eye-widening dance sequence which show-stoppingly jolt the audience to attention. Welz is asserting his control over pace, chaos, and audience expectation while also tagging the film with his identifiable mark. Over the years, he has become a distinctive voice in the world of thrillers (Calvaire, Vinyan, and Message from the King), and using shock value – not jump scares – to show his control over suspense and hazard. The film paces itself, steadily brooding with a level of discomfort, which doubles down at times as consequences befall Lucie.
Built on a foundation of a simple family dynamic, Welz shows a deftness in maximising suspense and intensity out of a simple narrative and long-buried secrets. There’s a bold willingness to tear down a family and explore individual depths of love and loyalty while ignoring the thriller custom of a tormented family having to stick together. Inexorable is a character-driven thriller that avoids convention as much as it demands attention.