Holy Motors - Film Review

“Holy Motors?” Try “Holy Smokes!” At the time of me writing this review, I would say that Leos Carax’s film should win the Festival de Cannes’ most beloved prize; le Grand Prix. With a star cast, such as Denis Lavant, Eva Mendes, and Kyle Minogue, created a seemingly perfect ensemble for a story that was completely contraire.

            The film opens with Monsieur Oscar (Lavant) leaving his huge home, heading to work with a limousine ready to pick him up. The driver, Celine, informs Oscar that he has a busy day with numerous appointments. This leads me to believe that Oscar is a gangster, considering he is in the back of a limo. However, the next scene doesn’t show Oscar getting out of the car near the side of the road. Instead, it is an old woman. The woman walks for quite some time before arriving at a pavilion and dances and entertains the local community. After the fun, this old woman returns to the limo, only to then take off the wig, makeup, and clothes to reveal Monsieur Oscar. This baffles me in an unfortunate way, because I proceeded to fall asleep.

            The next time I open my eyes, I would have sworn I am in a different theatre, watching an entirely different movie. I see Tron battling in front of me. Computer generated voices boom through the speakers. I am confused, lost, and speechless. I go back to sleep.

            I return from my second slumber, only this time there was no way I would fall asleep, even if I wanted to. Monsieur Oscar appeared to have transformed himself again, this time into a man resembling a leprechaun, with a glass eye. This character wasn’t the barrier holding me back from dreamland, but instead Eva Mendes was now on the screen. She is posing for photos in a graveyard when Oscar confronts the photographer. Oscar’s features and markings on his body amaze the photographer. He forces his assistant to talk Oscar into joining the shoot. As the assistant talks to Oscar, Oscar bites and rips her fingers off, leaving the crowd fleeing away from the scene and the photographer wanting more! Mendes continues to stand in her posed position, until Oscar picks her up, throws her over his back, and hurries away into one of the graveyard’s caves.

            This is where the film left me with several questions running around in my head. Why is this wealthy man having a limo driver dropping him off in random places while disguising himself? I can’t possibly sleep anymore if I want to find out the truth.

            Now Oscar wanted to get a little sexually with Mendes’ character in the cave by wrapping her up in the outfit she was wearing so you couldn’t see her face. A little odd considering Mendes is gorgeous. Then, Oscar turns completely naked, while keeping up with this leprechaun persona. One would assume that Oscar is now in his normal mentality since he didn’t blink twice after gnawing off the assistant’s fingers. Once Oscar is naked, he prances around Mendes, and then lays his head down on her lap and sleeps.

            Lavant’s acting enthralls me, making it appear so real. Especially when he goes to his next appointment. This time, the folders that are placed in the back of the limo that hold information for his next assignment, instructs Oscar to use a knife to kill a man that resembles Oscar. Not leprechaun Oscar, but a man who has the same face as him. He appeared to be some no-good thug. But to sum up this scene quickly, Oscar stabs his mission in the neck, begins to shave off the victim’s hair and disguises the body to look exactly as Oscar’s disguise. Then suddenly, after the audience thinks the victim is dead, he stabs Oscar in the neck too! From this point, I am confused as to how Oscar lived, and was completely 100% fine after returning to the limo. Not a scratch on him. My conclusion, using plain logic from the film’s name, is that the car has something to do with this mystery.

            There are a few more appointments that Oscar goes on, which all cover the same thing; Oscar is living either multiple lives, or he earns his money by filling roles in other people’s lives. There could possibly be a third option that I haven’t thought off, but it depends on how you interpret it.

            The beautiful part of the movie was when you left the theatre with open-ended questions. Why did he shoot the banker? Why did his love interest commit suicide? Why does he have a family of chimpanzees? Being able to talk about a film after it’s two-hour duration is thrilling. All these perceptions forming different conclusions create discussion. Solid endings have the story finished. “Holy Motors” may not even have an ending at all. It is worth the trouble of watching it again to make it possibly clearer.

Written by Leos Carax; directed by Leos Carax; produced by Martine Marignac; WITH: Denis Larant, Kylie Minogue, and Eva Mendes

Running time: 115 minutes