- Director : Dominik Moll
- Actors : Denis Ménochet, Laure Calamy, Danien Bonnard, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Bastien Boullion
- Studio : Cohen Media Group
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Country of Origin : USA
- Media Format : Anamorphic
- Run time : 1 hour and 57 minutes
- Release date : January 4, 2022
- Number of discs : 1
Based on Colin
Niel’s novel of the same name, Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes)
is a simple tale, despite taking place across several countries with various seemingly
unrelated characters. Director Dominik Moll keeps the audience in the dark
regarding the connection the various storylines have with each other, revealing
them only after the tension has been built up. Each piece of the puzzle
eventually falls into place in a way that feel inevitable, despite the initial
disorienting introduction to each moving part of the narrative.
The mystery at
the center of Only the Animals is split into sections, each one providing
more information by tying the narrative to one character. As each character’s
perspective is revealed, so are significant elements of the narrative. After a
brief dialogue-free prologue in Africa, the film starts with the narrative as
seen through the eyes of Alice (Laure Calamy). Alice is married to cow farmer
Michel (Denis Ménochet), though she is having an affair with emotionally distant
sheep farmer Joseph (Damien Bonnard).
On her way home from visiting her
lover, Alice sees the abandoned car belonging to Evelyne Ducat (Valeria Bruni
Tedeschi), a local woman who has mysterious gone missing. When the perspective
shifts to Joseph, details about Evelyne’s location are shown, though how she
got there is only revealed in the final segment. The disappearance is also
indirectly tied to several other characters, including Alice’s husband Michel.
While Alice is busy with Joseph,
Michel has marital secrets of his own, involving a young woman named Amandine (Juliet
Doucet). This is all a part of a complex scheme carried out by Armand (Guy
Roger N'Drin), an impoverished man in Africa looking to raise money to win back
his former girlfriend and the mother of his child. At the same time, a young
French woman named Marion (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) becomes entangled in several
storylines after having an affair with Evelyn. How each of these moving parts
come together becomes clearer at a certain point, though the enjoyment of the
film is the way Moll slowly reveals key information along the way.
Despite the enjoyment of the mystery
slowly being revealed over the course of the film, Only the Animals does
suffer slightly from what has been left out. Even with nearly a two-hour
run-time, there are too many characters to provide satisfactory backstories, making
some their actions feel inexplicable. The tone is also somewhat noncommittal,
never embracing the humor of the absurd or the tragedy of the melodrama. It is
difficult not to long for more, especially with all that is effective within
the filmmaking. Instead, the narrative ends up feeling as coldly distant as the
snowy setting.
The Blu-ray release for Only the
Animals doesn’t come with any special features to mention. The high-definition
Blu-ray does give the best possible presentation of the film, especially in the
wider shots of the natural surroundings of the French countryside the film mostly
takes place in. However, this may not be enough to warrant an upgrade from DVD.
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Special Features: 0/10
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