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HIDEAWAY
Finding refuge in each other
by Michael O’Sullivan
Sometimes a movie makes a point that’s been made before, but makes it so beauti- fully and so quietly that it feels like you’re discovering it for the first time. “Hide- away” does that, with the obliqueness of an off-hand comment. The glancing touch makes it all the more hard-hitting. The French drama, from writer-director
François Ozon (“Swimming Pool”), centers on Mousse (Isabelle Carré), a young, drug- addicted woman who discovers she’s preg- nant in the film’s opening minutes. Louis (Melvil Poupaud), the father of her unborn child, has just died, the victim of a drug overdose. Fast-forward several months. Now on
methadone to stave off withdrawal, Mousse has retreated to a house in a sleepy seaside village — the hideaway of the title — to have her baby, away from the prying eyes and moral judgments of society. While there, she gets a visit from Paul, Louis’s gay brother (singer Louis-Ronan Choisy, mak- ing an auspicious screen debut). He de- cides to stay awhile. Why? Maybe it’s the baby, who connects the
two of them in a way that neither one can articulate. For whatever reason, they are drawn together. After some initial prickli- ness, they end up spending much of the summer — and the movie — talking about things large and small. Not just Louis’s
STRAND RELEASING Isabelle Carré and Louis-Ronan Choisy play an unlikely couple who learn much about each other while awaiting the birth of a baby.
death and the new life that Mousse is car- rying within her, but revealing things about themselves. Paul tells Mousse that he was adopted and that he’s always felt Louis resented him for that. Mousse an- nounces that the house they’re staying in belongs to an older man she once slept with, at the age of 16. She isn’t sure, but she thinks that man may be her father. In short, they come to know — and in a surprising way love — each other. But it’s more than that. They also come to repre-
sent a new kind of family for each other, an especially important refuge for both Paul and Mousse, each of whom feels a bit lost, for obvious reasons. The film’s French title, in fact, is “Le Ref-
uge.” There’s a sense that what these char- acters are seeking is not just a hideaway, but a port in the storm. How — and in whom — they find it, in the movie’s touch- ing twist ending, is both unexpected and unavoidable.
Which brings me to the point that Ozon’s
film is trying to make. It’s this: The hide- away, or home, that each of us is looking for on the road of life isn’t a place after all. It’s other people.
osullivanm@washpost.com
Unrated. At the Avalon. Contains drug use, obscenity, sensuality, nudity and alcohol consumption by an expectant mother. In French with English subtitles. 88 minutes.
BBB
LEGENDARY
A sports film’s familiar hold
by Stephanie Merry The inspirational sports drama is a
genre that, while guaranteed to get the wa- terworks going, doesn’t typically offer many surprises. Such is the case with “Leg- endary,” with one exception. Instead of ka- rate, football or boxing, the movie in- troduces the audience to the world of wres- tling. The requisite underdog comes in the form of Cal Chetley (Devon Graye), a 135- pound Oklahoma teenager with a love for science, glasses and a best friend who might as well be called Dweeby McArgyle. Enter bullies, stage left. Partly due to his tormenters and also because Cal is part of a wrestling dynasty — both his estranged brother and his late father were mega- champs — he decides that he, too, will hit the mat. As it turns out, and it always does, Cal isn’t very talented. But if there’s one clear takeaway from any good sports mov- ie, it’s that only one thing stands between a
dismal athlete and a golden trophy; young grasshoppers just need a mentor. That would be the aforementioned brother, Mike, played by WWE superstar John Ce- na.
Wrestling fans will no doubt flock to see this WWE film and won’t be disappointed by Cena’s entrance. Working in construc- tion and wielding a blowtorch, he whips off
his protective mask to unveil a square jaw and thigh-sized neck as if he can hear the whoops from ladies in theater audiences across America. Mike is a formulaic ne’er- do-well, which means he shacks up with a slew of hussies, gets into bar fights, lives in a trailer and swills beer. In short, he has nothing to live for until Cal comes along hoping to mend family ties while learning
the art of the reverse cradle. What follows is exactly what you might
expect, right down to the montage of blind- folded tussling, jogging and high-fives to the tune of unrelenting inspirational mu- sic.
Despite the hackneyed script by John
Posey, “Legendary” is not without merit, and the story works fairly successfully as a family drama between Cal, Mike and their single mother, played by the dependable Patricia Clarkson. Meanwhile, Graye’s Cal carries an endearing earnestness that will have the audience rooting for the little guy, and the movie gets a little injection of quirk thanks to Cal’s lady friend Luli, played with offbeat charm by Madeleine Martin, better known as deadpan daughter Becca Moody from TV’s “Californication.” And while theater-goers will probably
leave “Legendary” feeling like they’ve seen it all before, maybe that familiarity is part of the appeal of the genre. It’s like cinemat- ic comfort food. Even if you’ve had it a hun- dred times before, there’s something to be said for the certainty of a feel-good experi- ence.
stephanie.merry@
wpost.com VAN REDIN/WWE STUDIOS Devon Graye, right, plays earnest wrestling underdog Cal Chetley in “Legendary.”
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains brief nudity and fighting scenes. 107 minutes.
BB
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
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