Written by: Claire Denis & Jean-Pol Fargeau
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle, Alex Descas, Florence Loiret Caille
Rating: [3/5]
As carnal creatures, humans carry this thirst and desire for physical touch with others. The degree of that touch varies from person to person, but generally, this comes with a positive connotation as this touch can be affection out of friendship, love, and lust. Trouble Everyday takes this idea and bastardizes it with a deeply disturbing story that does not necessarily make for an enjoyable viewing experience but certainly leaves its mark.
On their honeymoon in Paris, Shane (Vincent Gallo) and June Brown (Tricia Vessey) take in the city while Shane also discreetly tries to find individuals he has known in his past, Léo Semenau (Alex Descas) and his wife Coré (Béatrice Dalle). When he does find them he comes to find out Léo has Coré boarded up in their home for mysterious reasons.
Difficult to watch in moments, Trouble Everyday operates as a quintessential Claire Denis film but certainly not the first one to start with her filmography if beginning fresh. It has many of the trademarks we can associate with her when it comes to the focusing on mood more than plot in addition to creating many uncomfortable moments. This feature digs into something quite hideous about the human condition and does so with a gory nature that will not let anyone who watches it forget what they just saw. Sure, some moments may have individuals wanting to stop watching the narrative playing out, but the desired impact of Denis unquestionably gets completed. Whether or not the person who watched the story felt it resonated with them remains its own story.
Continuing to traverse down this road Claire Denis wants us to go through in this feature she heightens everything to their extremes to a repulsive degree. She utilizes our urges and cranks them up to a level that becomes revolting pretty much guaranteeing no one should watch this movie while eating. This definitely creates some shock value but it comes with plenty of intention, particularly, in the way we view Coré and where she fits into the story. As a woman boarded up in her home, one would hope there would be a good reason for it and the film provides one. Coré has a taste for flesh in more ways than one and she remains integral to the central message of the story and how she interacts with the men within the narrative. From her husband to Shane and some individuals who break into the house, they all perceive her and react to her in different ways, which says plenty about them and how Coré, in turn, reacts to them. The moments she has in this feature become the ones that will stay with you far after the final credits roll and so much credit must go to Béatrice Dalle for putting on this captivating and terrifying figure.
With Shane serving as the protagonist of this feature and whom we see this story play out, the feature does begin to lose some steam. While never being the biggest Vincent Gallo fan, in this feature he just does not have what this feature needs to fully succeed. Following him as he traverses around Paris shows quite the uninteresting character. What he ends up doing in the third act will raise some eyebrows and ultimately be the final straw for some but nothing about this character and performance helps this narrative succeed as much as it could have. It became the difference between it never reaching greatness status. Where he exists in the story completely makes sense, especially in the way he progresses. Still, he never, not for one moment, operates as the most interesting character on the screen, which serves as a testament to the other individuals around him.
Certainly not a film I’ll be running to revisit anytime soon, Trouble Everyday displays Claire Denis working in areas she loves as she twists the knife on the viewing experience. She makes us deeply uncomfortable in the way this plot plays out but also the deeply embedded themes that reveal something much darker about carnal desire and the means we go in order to fulfill them. Certainly not for the light-hearted, this film will serve the right audience well while remaining inaccessible to the casual person.
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