- Actors: Diane Kruger, Norman Reedus
- Director: Fabienne Berthaud
- Disc Format: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Spanish
- Region: Region 1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: Unrated
- Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
- DVD Release Date: August 16, 2016
- Run Time: 106 minutes
Sky begins as a
thriller, drifts into a road trip romance, and ultimately ends as an
unrealistic Midwestern melodrama. The only consistency throughout all of it is
Diane Kruger’s performance, despite the fact that the screenplay doesn’t provide
much depth to the film’s protagonist, or any of the supporting characters she
meets along the way. This is a film which is more dedicated to the melancholy
of each moment rather than the details which have made each character so
depressing. Life is hard, seems to be the message, and it doesn’t particularly
matter why.
This seemingly
directionless road trip soap opera begins with Romy (Kruger) on vacation in California with her
frustrated husband (Gilles Lellouche). For two people on vacation, they don’t
seem to be having any fun at all. There are hints later in the script that it
may be due to a number of miscarriages in their relationship, but Romy is a
dark cloud of moodiness regardless of the reason. After her husband becomes so
tired of her sour attitude that he crosses the line physically, Romy wastes no
time bashing him over the head with a motel lamp.
After a fair
amount of time misleading the audience into thinking the film has turned into a
thriller about Romy escaping her husband’s murder, we discover that he is fine.
A quick hospital visit is all it takes for the marriage to dissolve, and Romy
moves on to explore the United
States on her own. This begins with a trip
to Vegas where Romy pairs up with a street performer (Laurene Landon) until she
is propositioned by a rugged cowboy, Diego (Norman Reedus) who admits to only
sleeping with prostitutes.
Although Diego
is hardly much of an improvement on her husband, Romy inexplicably follows him
back to his humble home where he continues to treat her in a sub-par manner.
Romy gets a job waiting tables at a local diner in the small town (despite
merely being a foreigner on vacation), meets Diego’s extended family (dominated
by Lena Dunham as the obnoxious sister-in-law), and moves in with the stoic
cowboy. The remainder of the film becomes about Remy’s struggle to get Diego to
admit his feeling for her, which is a confusing turn of events after watching
the inexplicable rejection of her husband. One can’t help but wonder if the
appeal of Diego has something to do with his lack of interest, whereas the
obvious affections of her husband (however misguided his approach) were so
definitively rejected.
The problem with
the screenplay by Pascal Arnold and director Fabienne Berthaud is that it mistakes
ambiguity with a lack of characterization. There is so little offered about
each of the characters, I found it extremely difficult to understand their
motivations or care what happened to them. It does not help that the most
dramatic events are chosen to occur, despite a subdued approach to nearly every
scene. The result is somewhat like watching paint dry, while simultaneously
being told that the paint is lead-based and exposure will have deadly
consequences.
There are no
special features on the DVD.
Entertainment Value:
4.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 2/10
Special Features: 0/10
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