Les Combattants – Review by C.K. MacNamara

Director: Thomas Cailley

Starring: Kévin Azaïs and Adéle Haenel

The award winning Les Combattants is an example of extreme polarity; a quirky spin on the traditional love story, with one very relatable and likeable Romeo character teamed up with an extremely unlikeable cardboard cut-out masquerading as Juliet.

Our Romeo, Arnaud, is a typically conflicted and bewildered teenager on the cusp of adulthood, stranded in a seaside French town in the midst of the recession with few prospects to speak of. Saddled to a slumping carpentry business alongside his brother, Arnaud’s time is split between the work, sitting on the beach ruminating on the futility of life in typical teenager fashion, and listening to the slogans of the local army recruitment drive.

It is on one of these beachside rendezvous that Arnaud is entered into a wrestling match with the brooding Madeleine, an aloof loner amongst the handful of every generation who believe the end of the world is right around the corner. After a brief violent exchange the script promptly declares this is love at first sight. The typical laundry list of cinematic romance tropes are rattled off in quick succession as Arnaud attempts to coax the militant Madeleine out of her self-imposed shell.

Falling into the typical writing error of labelling an emotionally distant and aggressive outcast as the ‘strong female character’ Madeleine mainly serves to string along the far more likeable Arnaud through an increasingly impulsive series of  adventures, ultimately leading to his enrolment in an army training camp in pursuit of Madeleine’s stony eyed affection.

The charming character quirks, while endearing are sadly superficial, and at its core this is the typical formula of unrequited love. Sincere performances by Kévin Azaïs and Adéle Haenel help mask over some of the narrative cracks, but one ultimately gets the sense this is a ‘been there done that’ affair, albeit one with a lot more camo paint and pseudo nihilism. A fun experience, but one that comes down to the viewer’s love of the genre, rather than the actual film.