Carmen: Film Review
I was super excited when Carmen was announced because I couldn’t wait to see Paul Mescal and Melissa Barrera in a musical. Unfortunately, I came away from this totally disappointed and baffled because it was not what I expected at all.
A gritty, modern-day reimagining (a very loose reimagining) of Georges Bizet’s 1875 opera of the same name, the story follows Carmen (Barrera) as she flees Mexico following her mother’s murder. She successfully crosses over the border into the U.S., where she and her fellow immigrants are met with a dodgy group of volunteer border guards featuring former Marine Aidan (Mescal). Following a deadly standoff, Carmen and Aidan go on the run together and head for Los Angeles, where her mother’s best friend Masilda (Rossy de Palma) runs a nightclub.
Considering this is dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied‘s directorial debut, I knew it would be big on dance, but that’s basically all this film is! It isn’t a traditional narrative feature – it is an experimental dance piece with not much else in between. The choreography is beautiful and well shot (I wouldn’t expect anything less from Millipied) but they are mostly dream-like sequences that feel disjointed from the rest of the film. Most of the time, they don’t function as a storytelling device or move the tale along – they’re just simply there.
As it is based on an opera, I assumed this would be a musical. But there are barely any remnants of the original opera and the leads only sing briefly. It is all about the dance and while those sequences are gorgeous, there isn’t enough meat on the film’s bones. There is very little dialogue and we often watch the duo wordlessly act or dance as Nicholas Britell‘s glorious score does the heavy lifting.
Carmen is a hollow, frustrating, and confusing piece of work. It doesn’t know what it wants to be and is trying to be too many things at once. There is very little story and substance, particularly for a two-hour movie, and the ending feels so vague and sudden.
The shining light of the movie is Barrera, who is a stunning dancer and singer. We saw this before with In the Heights but that was more of an ensemble, whereas she fully carries this film. I love Mescal but this is the first time he felt miscast for me. He brings the correct intensity for the character but he seemed out of place. I personally didn’t buy their connection or attraction to one another and found the whole piece emotionally empty. What a shame.
In cinemas now