It’s a simple enough question, coming in the opening moments of the freaky French thriller titled (what else?) “La Moustache.” But somehow you know what’s around the corner is going to be anything but innocent and ordinary, given the roiling, inky black water that plays behind the movie’s first minutes.
Middle-aged Marc (Vincent Lindon) has sported a mustache his entire adult life. Feeling mischievous and maybe suffering from a bout with life’s same- old, same-old, Marc shaves his soup-strainer.
He can’t wait to show the results to his wife, Agnes (Emmanuelle Devos), who earlier said that she wouldn’t know Marc without his facial hair.
Turns out, Agnes doesn’t even notice that Marc shaved. Neither do their longtime friends, whom they see at a dinner party that night.
At first, Marc thinks Agnes is messing with his mind. But when she still hasn’t said anything by the end of the night, Marc explodes. He is offended by his wife’s elaborate, cruel prank of nonrecognition.
She is uncomprehending. “What mustache? You’ve never had a mustache.”
Director Emmanuel Carrere playfully adapts his own novel for his feature debut and makes the interesting decision to show the film’s events entirely through Marc’s perspective. This not only heightens the feeling of disorientation, paranoia and existential crisis, but makes Agnes even more of an enigma. Is she committed to Marc – or does she want him committed?
The movie’s central mystery becomes increasingly fragmented and ambiguous as it hurtles toward its conclusion, but this much Carrere makes clear – a husband and wife, no matter how much they love each other, are individuals, inhabiting separate bodies, separate worlds.
Couples can have heart-to-hearts every day and still not know each other. Not really. That’s how fragile intimacy is.
The crisis in “La Moustache” engulfs the marriage. Initially, this loving Parisian couple tries to ignore the elephant in the room – they go shopping, they go to dinner, they make love. They’re committed to getting through Marc’s “delusions,” but they don’t necessarily want to talk about them. To do so could potentially be fatal to their relationship.
By the end, Marc is more than happy to live with the unknowable and the unsaid in order to restore order and identity. The movie ends happier than Carrere’s novel, but it’s no cheat. The turbulent dark water remains, ready to engulf Marc at any moment.
| “La Moustache”
NOT RATED but includes sexual scenes and adult language|1 hour, 22 minutes|THRILLER|Directed by Emmanuel Carrere; written by Jerome Beaujour and Carrere; based on Carrere’s novel; in French with subtitles; photography by Patrick Blossier; starring: Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos|Opens today at the Starz FilmCenter.
