SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Python Hyena Maelstrom (2000): Dir: Denis Villeneuve / Cast: Marie-Josee Croze, Jean-Nicholas Verreault, Stephanie Morgenstern, John Dunn-Hill / Voice: Pierre Lebeau: Dark comic drama that is predictable but stylish. The heroine's state of mind is in a whirlpool of burden due to alcohol and guilt after she hits someone while driving and doesn't realize it until the following day. Narrated by a fish that is about to be slaughtered, the heroine too feels within the same state as she runs her car off a bridge. She falls in love with the victim's son, which adds to complications although the dealing of the ashes is plain tasteless. Brilliantly shot with fable-like narrative style with director Denis Villeneuve with great use of dark humour. Marie-Josee Croze is fantastic in her fragile state and her struggle to deal with a relationship that is within the wrong side of her dilemma. Jean-Nicholas Verreault adds comic touches as the victim's son who is unaware of what really occurred and therefore will be rendered ignorant to it all. Stephanie Morgenstern play's Croze's friend who tells her the obvious but is helpless as to the effect of her advice. Pierre Lebeau is the voice of the narrator fish whose fate is sealed and who has time for this last tale. John Dunn-Hill is cast as a fishmonger, which seems appropriate given the circumstances. Intriguing low budget yet remarkable achievement in French filmmaking. Score: 8 / 10

Ketsia Lessard Made in Québec, Maelström tells the story of Bibiane Champagne, a young entrepreneur stuck in a downward spiral leading to a suicide attempt and redemption through a relationship with a man whose father she hit and killed while drunk driving.Denis Villeneuve's film opens with his lead character undergoing an abortion. We then see Bibiane giving a phone call in the elevator declaring: "It's settled." Showing up at work, she is fired by her business partner, her own brother, for bad management that cost the clothing company $200 000. Bibiane is comforted by her friend Claire, an intellectual who's had three abortions herself. Claire has come to pamper Bibiane and help her get back to normal. "You must not feel guilty" she insists. But Bibiane is feeling increasingly bad. Claire throws a party in her apartment and Bibiane drinks heavily to daze her conscience. On her way home, she hits an old fishmonger crossing the street and drives on, leaving him half-conscious on the road. The man manages to get home and dies sitting in his kitchen chair. Bibiane is under shock. Her guilt reaches a peak, so she takes some drugs and heads to the discotheque to meet someone and have sex. Unable to escape her inner turmoil and wanting to get rid of any evidence of the hit and run, she tries to push her car into the Saint-Lawrence River. After some unsuccessful efforts, she resolves to drive it into the water and kill herself at once. The young woman survives and gets another chance at life. When Bibiane goes to the funeral home where her victim's ashes are, she meets the fishmonger's son Evian and pretends to be a neighbour. Evian asks her to help him sort his father's things, and she accepts. Love is kindled and Bibiane finally admits she is the murderer, asking Evian to kill her. Evian is torn, but chooses to forgive her and allows Bibiane to find grace.Put into context, this is a surprising film. Bibiane evolves in the most atheistic place in North America, a province with one of the highest suicide rates in the world and where one baby out of four is aborted. Christian symbolism is nonetheless very present in this story, as if Québec's conscience was screaming out for salvation. We see Bibiane numerous times in the shower trying to get clean, but only reconciliation through the son leads her to freedom.

ndhand I was rather excited to watch this film, and the first hour or so did not disappoint. It reminded me a lot of Kieslowski's Blue, and also a little bit of Red, in the character interaction, the cinematography, the use of colors, and just the overall mood. However, I thought that the last half went downhill. It suddenly switched from a journey into depression and internal conflicts to a cliched, improbable love story, almost as if the ending had been tacked on. The emotions of the main characters in the end shift too dramatically, and it seems as though no healing or reconciliation takes place (although apparently some does). The very ending, with the last words of the fish were too out of context, and I swear that they were borrowed directly from some other source. Perhaps my least favorite part of the entire movie comes at the ending on the boat, only because the song being played does not fit the mood at all, and changed my outlook entirely. All in all though, a feature worth watching, if only for the first half alone.

boffoscribe I saw this film at Sundance and it was the best film I saw there by far.Marie-Josée Croze is a French-speaking long-lost sexy little sister of Maura Tierney (for all you casting directors out there). The first scene of the movie is likely to shock 95% of viewers, but if they can get past it this twisted caper is not only worth seeing at the theater/theatre/cinema, but a good candidate for DVD collections. RIYL: Delicatessen, Insomnia, David Lynch.