[yasr_overall_rating]
In “Félix and Meira,” an unusual romance blossoms between two lost souls who inhabit the same neighborhood but vastly different worlds.
Writer/Director Maxime Giroux teams up with co-writer Alexandre Laferriere to give us a window into the spiritual and emotional journey of Félix (Martin Dubreuil) and Meira (Hadas Yaron). Meira, a miserably unhappy Hasidic Jewish woman feels she is slowly being crushed by her conservative husband Shulem (Luzzer Twersky) and the rules and traditions that govern her Hasidic Jewish community. The routines, house work obligations and traditions that Meira’s female relatives see as a mitva – blessing – and a comfort, are the very same routines and traditions that are crushing her. The only escape she finds is in her young infant daughter and the pop music records she secretly plays after her husband leaves for morning prayers.
Félix, an aging hipster, has no community or family ties that ground him. He has returned to Montreal to reconcile with his dying father after many years of separation. With no apparent emotional, professional or spiritual attachments, Félix is in a fog. He has no direction to his life, and is merely existing. He lives off of a family trust fund, and in his mid 30’s has never really accomplished anything. When his father dies, Félix finds himself trying to make sense of his life and his place in the world.
Let me begin with how well acted this movie was. The body language and characteristic nuances that all three main characters offer are brilliant. That is the film’s saving grace. I was originally very drawn to the story, and was excited at the chance to review it. My enthusiasm for the movie slowly and steadily deflated as the story unfolded. Not for lack of understanding of the Hasidic Jewish community, or empathy for a 30 something person still trying to “find” themselves, but rather for the inescapable fact that the movie never offers real change or growth. It shows both main characters as rather dull people leading rather dull lives where nothing ever really happens, and concludes with a very lackluster ending. Although all three main actors were absolutely at their best, I was left with feelings of ambiguity.
I blame the writing for my lack of enthusiasm. Not enough of who Félix and Meira were as people comes across on the screen. Too much of who they were stayed in the writers’ heads. It almost feels as if the writers knew so much about who these people were and had become so comfortable with them, that they forgot that the rest of us didn’t know them yet. Much like when you own a car for a long time and loan it to your friend. You are so in tune with your car’s quirks and “personality” traits that you forget to explain them to your friend. Your friend then finds himself at the drive through window at McDonald’s not able to lower the driver’s side window because he doesn’t know that he has to giggle the handle and push on the door panel a bit to make it work.
I kept expecting the unlikely friendship to change who they were, to offer growth and maybe even a little happiness. I’m never even really sure if a love attraction has really developed. As the ending credits rolled, I felt I was seeing the same two unhappy undeveloped lost characters that the movie started with – just in different surroundings.
Now playing at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas
