Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), a club bouncer who has already made a play for Stéphanie before her accident, blithely offers her sex and she accepts, with some amazement – it’s not a relationship per se, more an arrangement based on mutual gratification and a certain mute empathy. He treats her rather more tenderly than he does his young son (Armand Verdure), who gets impatiently yanked around and left in the care of his aunt (excellent Corinne Masiero) more often than we necessarily find forgivable.
Rust and Bone, starring Marion Cotillard as a whale trainer who loses her legs in an accident, is a bruising, beautiful, and fierce love story, writes Tim Robey. Rust and Bone's soundtrack features Bon Iver, 'Love Shack' by the B-52s, and Katy Perry's 'Firework.' Such contrivances are rivaled only by the film's implausible premise: A driven trainer of.
Audiard takes huge risks navigating his way through this pummelling workout of a film, and it’s remarkable how many of them pay off.
His sure sense of rhythm, Juliette Welfling’s typically incisive editing, and the tremendous leads give it clout. The tough-as-an-ox Schoenaerts, whose bruiser-ish turn in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead still hasn’t been widely seen here, is as brutally sexy a new star as the art-houses have found in years. And Cotillard, who’s been waiting since La vie en rose for a role this substantial, is at her damaged, devastating best.