Brian DePalmas’ Passion is finally hitting theaters on August 30. I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival last year in a small side theater that felt almost like a private screening. I wasn’t impressed.
To quote the opening paragraph of my review:
Passion plays as if writer/director Brian De Palma took Alain Corneau’s screenplay for Love Crime, added on six minutes to the ending and shot every scene in one take no matter how well it turned out. All the elements from Corneau’s original are here, but none of the intrigue. It’s a stilted and stiff production with absolutely zero fluidity from scene to scene and lines such as “How about you call me… NEVER!” after Rachel McAdams is stood up by her booty call and she tosses her cell phone across the room. It’s big moves, daring proclamations and over-acting met with an absence of thrills. The score tells you things are about to get intense, but it isn’t long before you realize that’s just not the case.
The “NEVER” scene I reference there can be seen in this new trailer, but the dialogue is removed. It’s the moment she throws the cell phone. You can read the full review here.
The film stars Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace as a pair of businesswomen jostling for attention in the world of international business. It wants to be perceived as an erotic thriller, but it isn’t.
