Melbourne Film Festival Review: Passion (2012)

Cast: Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Karoline Herfurth
Director: Brian De Palma
Country: Germany | France
Genre: Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage of the Melbourne International Film Festival. For more information on MIFF visit http://miff.com.au/ and follow the festival on Twitter at @MIFFofficial.

How does a celebrated director turn murder, scandal, manipulation, kinky sex and lesbianism into a trite affair? I am still pondering exactly how Brian De Palma, someone who has demonstrated skill in previous years making the same topics the highlights of riveting yarns, managed to drop the ball on something that he should know how to handle with ease. Seeing young hot stars Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace locking lips should have made our pulses race. Instead, our heart rate remains at a comfortable level.

All the ingredients for a saucy thriller are right there in Passion, yet the Hitchcock inspired fellow squanders them all with his surprisingly G-rated approach.

It is hard to believe that the man behind competent thrillers such as Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Blow Out has lost his touch, but it is slowly becoming a reality with his recent efforts Mission to Mars, Femme Fatale, and The Black Dahlia pale in comparison. It would appear the man has lost his flare. All the ingredients for a saucy thriller are right there in Passion, yet the Hitchcock inspired fellow squanders them all with his surprisingly G-rated approach.

Passion charts the Berlin based battle of humiliations between advertising agency boss Christine Stanford (Rachel McAdams) and her bright but confidence lacking protégé Isabelle James (Noomi Rapace). The colleagues have a fine working relationship until Isabelle comes through with a cracker of an advert campaign idea that Christine takes sole credit for. Her purpose is purely self-serving (she hopes it will get her relocated back to the company’s New York office). The ice queen’s justification? “If you were in my position, you would have done the same thing.”

Tensions are elevated when Christine discovers that Isabelle is having an affair with her man - blurring the line between their work and personal lives. Christine launches a psychological attack on the emotionally frail Isabelle, which has a domino effect that results in murder.

This drearily flat look at office politics that promises sexual fireworks fails to achieve on most accounts. The set up is clunky, the leads lack chemistry and the pay off is as much a yawner as what has preceded. Just when the heat should be reaching unbearably high temperatures, it simply lingers at lukewarm. De Palma plays with the lighting and camera angles later in the piece to portray an increasingly dreamy and off-kilter world as the plot twists and turns, but to little effect. At most, the screen looks pretty at times, but mostly non-sense. His trademark split-screen is utilised to convey a vital plot point and it is in this moment that lasts mere minutes that we feel we are really in the hands of the De Palma that we know and love.

This drearily flat look at office politics that promises sexual fireworks fails to achieve on most accounts. The set up is clunky, the leads lack chemistry and the pay off is as much a yawner as what has preceded. Just when the heat should be reaching unbearably high temperatures, it simply lingers at lukewarm.

De Palma has, in the past, been able to turn trashy, fetish-like elements into deliciously enjoyable camp art, flirting with that fine line of what is and isn’t considered good taste. It often feels like at any moment, his work could easily be dismissed at junk, but his style and ingenuity always prevents it. Here he feels afraid to push the envelope, resting on suggestion but his attempts to tease are tame. His passion for the genre simply isn’t apparent anymore.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Julian Wright

Staff Film Critic

I am a film reviewer and blogger from Perth, Western Australia. I fell in love with cinema at an early age when I saw my first horror film and realised the impact movies can have on a person. For me it was terrifying me into an almost catatonic state. Later it was how much they made me laugh and cry. I'll watch pretty much anything and love indulging in a good film discussion.

Latest posts by Julian Wright (see all)

• Melbourne Film Festival Review: V/H/S 2 (2013) - August 20, 2013
• Melbourne Film Festival Review: Passion (2012) - August 16, 2013
• Melbourne Film Festival Review: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) - August 9, 2013