Love Me If You Dare (2003)

How this could get good reviews is beyond me. I give it two stars, because I could stand to make it all the way through. One star if I can't even finish a movie.Everyone goes through some trauma and loss in their lives; that is a terrible club we all eventually belong. That is not an excuse to become in essence: self-centered at best, and sociopathic at worst. Just because the protagonists were like this from childhood to adulthood and performed this kind of shame and outrage on each other as well as all the people they encountered throughout their lives did not make for a romantic movie for me. Both of the protagonists are crass and destructive towards anyone and everyone - whether they are strangers, or family, or spouses, or each other. This is not a comedic love story in my estimation.After the first 30 minutes, I was ready to quit on this movie, but wanted to keep an open mind and made it to the end. It had a lot of good reviews, but count me out.It reminded me more of Thelma and Louise than Amelie. I've seen French movies, and it's no Amelie. It's not even close to Thelma and Louise either.

This movie is painfully romantic ... very painful ... and very romantic.Firstly, I can really understand the famous critic Roger Ebert, when he describes the story as frustrating, and the characters as impossible to relate to. This is not how love should be: obsessive and self-destructive.However movies, do not have to reflect perfect life, or perfect love, but show us the extremes, how it turns out, if one would follow a path to the end without compromise, or play a game, and don't stop playing it. Also I believe the movie does contain more truth, then one would admit: Aren't things like the past, or pride, standing in the way of truly loving a person?Without spoiling, I can say the movie consists of three parts.The First part, is thoroughly innocent, and adorable, it tells one of the sweetest cinematic love stories, i have seen.Second part, the story gets more twisted, there is also more comedy, still one would not guess what awaits in the third part.Let me say this, without actually mentioning what happens in the end: I think there are 2 ways of loving, 1. to live happily with your loved one, and 2. to express how much you love, your loved one, no matter what. Which one is more important? Maybe sometimes the second ...

Most of us, me included, judge a movie after its ending. If the film is great is has to have a great ending, if it sucked the ending sucked. This one has a wonderful ending not just because it's tragic and unpredictable, but mostly because it's interpretable, relative, the watcher has the liberty to choose his own ending, the one who likes best. I guess that's the perfect movie, the one where you can make your own ending. Especially when all the choices given by the writers are perfect. I think we can better understand the real essence of the characters if we start watching the film from the end to the beginning, if we realize the intense feelings they have for each other, the reasons they do what they do, the whole idea of the game they play even in the final moment. It really makes you wonder: have I really experienced love, true, real, extreme, supreme love? Or am I capable to? There are no better words to describe it then the memorable ecstatic scene where Julien is chased by the cops: "Pure, raw, explosive pleasure! Better than drugs, better than smack! Better than a dope-coke-crack-fix shoot-sniff! A ganja-marijuana-blotter acid-ecstasy! Better than sex, head, sixty-nine, orgies, masturbation... Better than banana milk-shakes! Better than the George Lucas box-set, the Muppets and 2001! Better than Emma Peel, Marilyn Monroe, and Cindy Crawford's beauty spot! Better than B-side of Abbey Road! Better than Jimmy Hendrix, the first man on the moon! Better than the Space mountain, Santa Claus, Bill Gates' fortune, the Dalai Lama, Lazarus raised from the dead! Schwarzenegger's tester-one shots, Pam Anderson's lips! Woodstock, rave parties, Sade, Rimbaud, Morrison and Castaneda! Better than freedom, better than life!

There is too much to say!First of all,the masters of the filmmaking industry are the Americans,but the French left their footprints.The French have made many good films,but this is one of their best.The script was strong but the marketing was not enough to attract the attention of people worldwide and be a commercial success.Such a pity.The performances by the main protagonists were also good.I am pretty surprised that the film focused very much on the lives of the protagonists and did not show much of landscapes/attractions e.g Eiffel Tower,Paris,which showed that French people had a good potential in the filmmaking industry.I loved how plot was handled by this game called "Game" and how it deeply marked the lives of the characters.I really liked the fact that they showed two alternate endings(personally I preferred the first one with the couple getting immersed into the cement)instead of using the "american" technique of showing the one ending in the movie and cutting the other one which usually can be watched in DVD's extras.It is democratic because the viewer is given the option of choosing an end,thing that leads to his own personal satisfaction.