PASSION (2013) * ½

Christine (Rachel McAdams) and her protégée Isabelle (Noomi Rapace) work tirelessly together on a major ad campaign.  After their presentation is a huge success, Christine takes credit for Isabelle’s idea.  Isabelle soon learns there’s no end to her backstabbing ways. 

To give away any more would land me in Spoiler Jail.  Let’s just say things take a sharp left turn about halfway through.  The first half was no great shakes to begin with.  It’s almost as if we’re supposed to be shocked by McAdams’ behavior when she’s really no different than any corporate yuppie slimeball that have populated cinema since the ‘80s.  At least these scenes coast on McAdams’ engaging bitchiness.  Unfortunately, the second half rests so heavily on Rapace’s erratic performance that it really never stood a chance.  (Her big emotional breakdown is almost comical.)

Passion was directed by the great Brian De Palma, but this is far from a great Brian De Palma picture.  It’s a remake of the French film, Love Crime, and he does succeed in giving the movie a very European feel.  However, it’s just far too dull to really click.  Although the first half is clearly the stronger half, it doesn’t feel like it was directed by De Palma at all.  After the twist occurs, it becomes more of a typical De Palma jam… it’s just that it’s far too fractured and all over the place to really work.    

I mean there’s nothing I love more than a De Palma split-screen sequence.  It pains me to report that the split-screen scene in Passion is among his worst.  If you’re going to do a split-screen shot, at least make both sides of the screen compelling.  Filling half the screen with a lot of inane ballet shit doesn’t do anyone any favors.  I mean I get WHY he’s showing it to us, but that doesn’t make it very cinematic, especially when all someone had to say was, “She went to the ballet” and it would’ve sufficed.

While it’s nice to see De Palma playing in his sandbox again, he brings nothing new to the table.  Nowhere is this more apparent than the ending, which is nothing more than one long cinematic jerk-off leading to a frustrating-as-fuck it-was-all-a-dream bullshit cop-out final shot.  I was a little balder than I was at the start of the movie because the ending made me pull my fucking hair out.