I chanced upon this movie last year, when I was trying to
create for myself this huge collection since I was moving to a new city all by
myself. The antisocial Virgo that I am, I decided to have a backup of a decent
number of movies because I figured getting to know people would be too taxing
for me. So after a particular trying day, which included two video conference
calls at work, and being pushed and jostled in the train I needed to do
something which would not make me pack up and leave. I decided to dedicate the rest of the evening
to Jeux d'enfants or Love Me
If You Dare.
As I have mentioned
in a previous entry, I have been called a snob because I like
watching foreign films. Some people just can’t comprehend the fact as to why I
would end up ‘reading’ a film. What they don’t understand is that even when I
am not ‘reading’ a film, I am actually reading it.
Love Me If You Dare is a love story. But it is a twisted love story. It revolves around
Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie, (Marion Cotillard) best friends
since grade school who develop a game of dare and double dare. What started off
as childish pranks, soon spill over as dangerous stunts in their adult years.
The pact they made as eight year olds revolve around Julien’s tin box that
resembles a merry-go-round. The box comes with a dare; whoever gets the box
also has to complete the dare, there is no backing away from it. Thus begins the
childhood game, and the two form their own private world where they dare each
other to perform increasingly ludicrous pranks. This becomes a daily routine,
almost like a habit that they can’t do without. However in their adult years,
the pranks gather a more dark and dangerous undertone. The stakes are now exponentially higher; while
as 8 year olds a dare would be to crash the wedding cake at the wedding of
Sophie’s sister, as an adult Sophie dares Julien to say no at the altar on his
wedding day. They are aware of their mutual attraction to each other, but they
are too inebriated with the excitement and rush that the game brings along.
Partly out of pride and partly out of habit they choose to continue with the
game with outrageous dares, instead of confessing their attraction. This
becomes another episode of their hypnotic play – incite each other to sleep
with other people.
It is their relationship that is most striking. What is
their relationship about? Is it love? Or is it simply their mutual enchanting
fascination with the game? When the movie flash forwards to them as adults, we
see Julien and Sophie having a sleepover, in the same bed, in the exact same
positions when they were 8. Have they had sex in the mean time? Do we really
need to know that? What we need to know is that they are almost amalgated
together, maybe forever in a bond of shared hysteria. They are mortified at the
prospect of boredom which is why the dares keep on expediting as they get
older. At one point Sophie dares Julien to stay completely out of touch for 10
years. Will that get the game out of their system? It doesn’t seem so, because
both are painfully aware about the passage of time. To celebrate the victory of
the dare, they take it to the most disturbing level possible, which brings me
to the end of the movie. The movie provides alternate endings; it is for those
who want a movie with an END. I’d prefer the ending where Julien and Sophie
‘cement’ their love with their beloved tin box rather than the one that falls
into the doldrums of predictability. The scene that opens the movie is now
attuned with the end; of course it makes no sense whatsoever at the beginning,
so sit through the movie patiently and it will all make sense.
I had recommended Love
Me IF You Dare to three people; out of them one saw while the other passed
on. Well, their loss. And the one who did manage to watch it cribbed because of
the ending. Lesson learnt no more recommending movies!
Julien and Sophie come off as obnoxious and self-involved
characters; I hardly seem to think that is the flaw of the plot. That is how it
is supposed to be. The characters are so immersed in their hypnotic game, the
only goal in their life is to finish the dare and triumph temporarily over the
other. Does it matter that in the process they humiliate both themselves and
other people? Not to them. Love Me If You
Dare takes a fresh take on love and lovers’ pact.
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