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Gabrielle: In-depth character study makes up for lack of action
By Clarke Reader
creader3@mscd.edu

Courtesy of IFC Films Gabrielle Not rated 90 minutes Opens Sept. 15

For a movie that only rarely strays from its stifling and oppressive setting, Gabrielle has a lot going on.

The film may not have a lot of action, but it has enough tension and psychological nuance to keep a viewer watching a loveless marriage on the brink of collapse. Its setting is a stuffy, turn-of-the-century Parisian home, an ambience that serves to underline the strain and tension of a failing union.

Based on The Return by Joseph Conrad, the movie follows Jean Hervey (Pascal Greggory) and his wife Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert), a wealthy French couple who have settled down to a comfortable and sterile marriage.

Their predictable routine changes when Jean comes home to find a note from Gabrielle, saying she’s leaving him for another man. He is completely shocked, and his surprise is compounded when she returns, telling him she couldn’t go through with it.

And this is in the first 20 minutes.

The rest of the film depicts the pair adjusting to their marriage and what Gabrielle’s leaving signifies for them as individuals and as a couple. What this means is that they both talk – a lot. They talk to each other, they talk to the servants and they talk to themselves. Either despite or because of all this verbosity, the audience enters the characters’ heads and sees their motivations.

The acting of both Greggory and Huppert is superb, both imbuing their characters with vivid life despite the dreary surroundings.

Jean is all business. He fears emotion and prefers appreciating beauty from afar. As the story develops, however, he finds himself wondering if that is really the best way to go through life, finally coming to a dramatic decision.

Gabrielle starts the film in much the same way, but eventually comes to crave passion and activity instead of the quiet, restrained life Jean has fashioned for them. Huppert makes Gabrielle’s happy moments pulse with force and emotion.

For the most part the film’s cinematography, along with its sets and costumes, lends the drama a constricted, confined feeling that echoes Gabrielle’s sense of suffocation. At times, the cinematography borders on disorienting, switching between black-and-white and color, creating an interesting effect. But the motivation for the switch is never quite clear.

What Gabrielle lacks in action, it makes up in characterization. Huppert and Greggory’s detailed portrayal of a couple in peril paints a captivating portrait that gives Gabrielle the credibility it deserves.