OUT OF COURTED
Christian Vincent’s Courted tells of a separated judge, Michel Racine (Fabrice Luchini), presiding over a child murder trial, who discovers that one of the jurors is Ditte (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a nurse he fell in love with during a hospital stay years ago. On the one hand this movie, which Mr. Vincent also scripted, is a serious piece of filmmaking. The acting is excellent, the characters sharp, the writing mature. The film feels like it was made with authority and wisdom. Yet something doesn’t quite work.
For one thing, although there is humor in the writing — such as when husband and wife witnesses argue on the stand about the configuration of their apartment, or when the judge tries to bond with a teenage girl by reciting a poem to her — Mr. Vincent directs his script coolly, from a distance, without punctuating the comedic moments. No doubt this was intentional on his part, to keep those scenes in line with the drab atmosphere of the film. But I wonder if a bit of levity and, more importantly, variation, wouldn’t have allowed us to care a little more about the characters and what was happening to them, especially taking into account how unpleasant, at least at first, the protagonist is.
Unpleasant protagonists aren’t necessarily problematic. But when they’re unpleasant, and not very active and therefore not too sympathetic, and when the stakes aren’t very high or very clear, I find myself having a problem caring about what happens to them. I suspect Mr. Vincent was averse to allowing too many dramatics, too much theatricality, to interfere with what appears to be his intention: to tell a subdued, realistic story. My problem is, I don’t feel Michel’s need.
Also, there are peripheral characters, including the defendant and his wife, who have much more at stake than Michel. Mr. Vincent tantalizes us with their story, yet leaves us unsatisfied, turning the trial, which starts out as the centerpiece of the film, into something of less-than-secondary importance. His point seems to be that it’s just another in a series of cases in Michel’s life. But too much time is devoted here just to turn it into a red herring.
Another misleading scene involves the jurors who introduce themselves to each other over lunch. Why do we need to see this cross section of French society? There is potential humor in this scene as well, but directed flat I don’t understand the point of including it, as we never get any deeper into these characters. Are they supposed to give us a sense of the variety of people in the world? Of how we’re all different and come in contact with one another randomly? Of how the chance of meeting someone vital is unfathomably small? Are they simply there to add color? Texture? I don’t know. But it feels like we need either more of these people or less.
All of this is not to say that Courted is a bad film. It has ideas. I’d even say it succeeds in its mission to present a serious exploration of aspects of the human condition. It’s just too flat, there’s no variation, it’s not any fun. And I’m not moved by it emotionally, which makes it hard to keep watching.
photos by Jerome Prebois  © Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival
Courted (L’Hermine)
Gaumont
France | 2015 | Color | 98 min.
North American Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
for screening times, visit Tribeca