Irreversible - what's the point of the movie? I found it very disappointing.

People say this movie is very hard to watch. That turned out to be true, with found footage-level shaky cameras all over the place and an annoying guy (Marcus) shouting all the time.

The movie is told in Memento style, with scenes going backwards revealing more of the story. While in Memento it serves a plot purpose and helps you connect with the protagonist, what it achieves here is that you’re watching “high-intensity” scenes without feeling involved at all (although as we find out, the more you learn about the characters the less you care). The movie starts with two French guys yelling and fighting and it goes on for a good first half of the movie, you pick up the story along the way cause it’s pretty simple but it really feels like an effort.

The movie tells a story about a girl who got raped and her boyfriend and simpy ex getting revenge on the rapist, and failing. In retrospect I understand the movie does this to make a point about how you can't go back in time and undo a tragedy, but it didn't resonate with me because going back in time didn't make me care more.

I almost stopped watching but decided to endure at least until the infamous Belucci rape scene for culture’s sake. The scene was actually a relief because Marcus wasn’t there and the scene was relatively coherent.

I know it upset many viewers and is supposed to be really shocking, but think what’s special about it doesn’t come from the fact you’re watching a 10 min rape scene (it’s not that graphic), but that it takes Monica Belucci, who is considered some untouchable beauty, and you see her getting anally raped by a guy who seriously hates her existence. Even though her rape wasn’t planned, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, the guy is absolutely disgusted by her. It’s not one of those “she’s so hot I can’t help myself” rapes, the guy sees her as a rich bitch used to getting what she wants cause she’s hot, and he hate-rapes her, calling her a sow and similar names in the process.

This is also the first we see of her character so you can’t really care for her either. But what really comes through is how much the rapist can’t stand her. When he’s done raping her, he bashes her face in.

To me that was what stuck out the most in the whole movie, the amount of honest hatred and disgust the guy had for her. It’s kind of ironic, he’s the fucked up rapist and she’s Monica Belucci but he is utterly disgusted by her in the process.

Then the movie goes back and we learn more about her and the two main guys… and it doesn’t make anyone any more likeable.

I usually hate when people criticize movies and shows for not having likeable characters. But I am not talking about morality here, I am talking about how enjoyable, interesting or immersive someone is to watch, and here some very shitty people can make great characters. Also, not every movie needs likeable characters, sometimes that’s the whole point. But normally, a revenge movie would require the viewer to give at least moderate shit about the characters, feel the importance of their relationship and loss, and want them to get justice (e.g. Mandy). This one doesn’t.

The protagonist is supposed to be some French Chad, the obnoxious guy whom you watch as he does drugs, cheats on his girlfriend, takes her money and just shouts shit out like he has Tourettes all the fucking time. He also stole the girl from his super simpy friend whom he still keeps around to boost his ego, so shit friend too. When someone executes revenge, the viewer should ideally believe how much the victim meant to them but we just saw this guy cheating so the stakes aren’t that high, he isn’t convincing in his need for revenge, it’s not deep. And in general, he’s so fucking annoying.

Then there’s the friend, the most pathetic character, also incredibly annoying in his own way. It’s hard to understand why he’s even involved in the whole plot but he’s just so obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. He idolizes her cause she’s pretty (kind of connects to the point the rapist made about her being over-valued cause of her looks), trying to get her boyfriend to treat her with more respect while she literally tells him that she prefers the other guy cause he doesn’t care about how she feels. He constantly self-deprecates while they laugh at him. Just a totally weird masochistic relationship dynamic.

The girl is a vapid “I love assholes” stereotype, we learn that she left her ex for his best friend because she likes how the other guy only focuses on his own pleasure while having sex, but still keeps the ex around awkwardly, occasionally throwing him a bone. She knows that her boyfriend cheats on her and flirts with others in front of her but is thrilled to find out that he knocked her up. After learning that fact, she goes on to party.

I think it’s interesting how the movie establishes that she likes to be treated like shit and is turned on by the guy who doesn’t care about her pleasure. There was even a scene when they talked about anal and it seems like she was up for it. So in that context, is the rape scene supposed to say this is what she wanted when taken to the extreme?

The viewer also realizes that the two guys ended up getting the wrong guy, the rapist got away with it. I wish it made me go oh fuck, but since the protagonist was so extremely unlikable, I didn’t really give a shit.

Overall, I don’t really get the point of the movie or what effect did the director intend for it to have on the viewer. What kind of attitude did he want us to have towards these characters? I don't know if I'm disconnected here, or if he was self aware about how unlikable they are. It seems the director was definitely suggesting something with the conversations and behaviors characters displayed before the main scene, but the few comments I read about it just seem to see Belucci as someone whose life and relationship were great before and now are irreversibly damaged - yeah but did they miss that her boyfriend's an idiot, that her decision making's shit, that the triangle with the friend is bizarre... I don't see any analysis of that because I guess the act of rape is so bad it doesn't sound right to dissect the characters? I don't know.

I noticed that a lot of people found the rape scene very disturbing. I didn't find it emotionally effective or that disturbing (probably since I watched a lot of exploitation movies and the visual alone doesn't have any profound impact), but I like the raw hatred of it. However the rest of the movie just doesn't draw me in at all, and is even boring to watch even when it's so packed with action the camera can't stop shaking. The movie left me so disappointingly indifferent I wonder what I'm missing, unless that was on purpose for whatever reason.