Le Combat ordinaire (2015)
Directed by Laurent Tuel

Film Review

Le Combat ordinaire is the latest in a seemingly endless slew of comic book adaptations to have deluged French cinema over the past decade, although this one at least has a highly well-regarded source in the series of award winning graphic novels of the same title by Manu Larcenet.  France's love affair with the bande dessinée is sure to continue this phenomenon, which has so far give us few outright winners - Riad Sattouf's Les Beaux gosses (2009) and Abdellatif Kechiche's La Vie d'Adele (2013) - amid the wearying cornucopia of misfires, which are too numerous to list.  Laurent Tuel's adaptation of Larcenet's comic books manages to avoid being an outright disaster and it does have some strong selling points, but, by trying to cram in too much into too small a space and losing traction as a result, it can hardly be said to do justice to the material that inspired it.  It is however a slight improvement on Tuel's previous films, which include a Polanski-style thriller Un jeu d'enfants (2001) and off-beat comedy starring Johnny Hallyday, Jean-Philippe (2006).

Had Tuel been more selective in his filching of content from Larcenet's books Le Combat ordinaire could have been a thoroughly respectable account of a thirty-something's attempt to come to grips with his personal problems and find meaning in his life.  The content is all there in the original graphic novels, but Tuel's principal failing is an over-eagerness to take as much as he can without much regard to whether it can all hang together as a film.  The result is a thematic potpourri which veers all over the place, its themes ranging from pre-midlife angst, coping with ageing parents, committing to long-term relationships, political engagement, depression, photography, and about a dozen other subjects, none of which is covered in sufficient depth.  The inclusion of irrelevant episodes, such as the one involving a neighbour with a dubious past in Algeria, just weigh down an already over-laden narrative.

The patchwork nature of the story is compounded by Tuel's somewhat forced attempts to play the auteur (something he does with an endearing gaucheness).  The director can doubtless justify his over-use of slow zooms, shaky camera movement and black-and-white inserts as these reflect how the protagonist, an angst-ridden career photographer, sees the world through his art.  But, to a spectator watching his film and trying to make some sense of it, they provide an unnecessary distraction from the content and the performances, most of which are exemplary.  The film is at its best when Tuel reins in his auteur excesses and allows the story to tell itself through a combination of solid acting and unpretentious but highly expressive photography.  There are passages in the film that are breathtakingly beautiful, others that are intensely moving, and all it needed for Le Combat ordinaire to be a great film was the self-discipline and confidence to focus on the essentials and throw out everything else.

Nicolas Duvauchelle is the ace up Tuel's sleeve that saves the film.  His authentic portrayal of a young man struggling to gain control of his life is just about the only thing that holds the film together, despite Tuel's best efforts to burst it apart by forcing too much content into it.  Duvauchelle's moodily introspective persona makes him a perfect casting choice for the central role of Marco, a man fighting a personal battle on numerous fronts whilst visibly tormented by a need to work out what life is for.  It's a standout performance in a career that has already made Duvauchelle one of France's most sought-after actors, and whatever other faults Tuel's film may have it is not short on conviction in its lead actor's performance.

For the sequences set in the port of Lorient (replacing Saint-Nazaire in Larcenet's original stories), non-professional actors were recruited to make up a fair chunk of the cast.  It's another auteur gimmick, but one that works to the film's advantage, lending a sobering realism to this part of the film.  Allusions to France's present socio-political problems - unemployment resulting from automation, the increasing popularity of the Far Right - also help to anchor the film in reality, but again there is so much that is left unsaid, too much that is glossed over.  Thematically, Le Combat ordinaire offers a gargantuan feast, but each course is so dainty, with little beneath the mouthwatering garnish, that, at the end of it, you are left feeling that you have barely digested a snack.

Film Synopsis

Marco is a young thirty-something who may appear a tad surly but he is always full of good intentions.  Once a war photographer, he now leads a tormented existence as he sets about trying to rebuild his life.  When the woman he loves leaves him after he refuses to give her a child, Marco sinks deeper into depression.  He decides to undertake a photo report on the dockworkers in Lorient, the seaport where his father, a veteran of the Algerian war, once worked.  The mood in the town is poisoned by the threat of redundancies and an upsurge in extreme rightwing sentiment...