Member review

Colette is the newest film by Director Wash Westmoreland who previously directed the Oscar-winning film 'Still Alice'. Set in the early 20th Century, Colette is a biopic about Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the young housewife of esteemed novelist Henry Gauthier-Villars who is known as Willy by his family, friends and fellow associates. Colette begins to help her husband by writing her home stories into a novel to save their house which eventually turns out to be a smash hit with women all across France and as she starts writing more she becomes more frustrated by Willy getting all the praise and none of the credit going to herself.

This film surprised me as I walked into the preview screening for this movie expecting a slow-paced, aesthetically pleasing movie about a French writer. Now might I say this movie is still aesthetically pleasing with the beautiful set design, location decisions, and the costume design it was not slow paced at all. It did take its time to really set into the main focus of the story but it didn't waste any time at all when it ultimately got into play. It ended up being an energetic, light, loving and a bundle of fun which embodied the character of Colette very well and what felt like an easy performance from Keira Knightly just blissfully swept you into their surroundings.

Keira Knightly in this movie was a breath of fresh air because she was slowly going on a streak of becoming that actress that used to be good but unfortunately as they grew older went onto starring in bad movies (Collateral Beauty [2016], Pirates 5 [2017], The Nutcracker and the four realms [2018]). She was playing the character of Colette with such confidence and spark that it was merely impossible to dislike her as an actress in this role but also dislike her character. Having to at one point go through heartache and at the next dodge a chair and glasses being thrown at you while you're half-naked, I never felt unsure or even in the slightest thought she was miscast as her character which left me with a grin. That's not to say she outshone the other cast members, Dominic West was great as well and they both felt comfortable with each other on screen. The character of Willy gave me a slight resemblance to 'Beauty and the Beasts' Gaston with his big build, charm with women and a certain scene where he sings and dances on a table with ladies I started to notice.

As the plot starts to build with Colette's "Claudine Stories" not just being a series of books but getting a play, the character begins to resent her cheating, self-obsessed, scumbag of a husband for keeping her trapped inside his little box and she decides to branch out for a more feminine side of life. Introducing the most basic way a character can have a sexual awakening... long blank stares across a table/room made it quite obvious that she wasn't all the way straight. As she becomes more adventurous she gets more courageous and confident to stand up to her husband and burst out of the bubble he has kept her in which brings nice tension to the film which felt very smooth and fairly placed in the structure.

After a while of back and forth repetition with Colette being the minx she is and Willy being the deceiver he is the film slows itself down a bit to focus on the relationship between them both and to show how she is drifting away from him not just as his lover but as a person. This part of the film gets slow and at times lengthy to the point of it having an incredible decrease in attention by not just me but the other audience members in my screen. This didn't impact the films overall rating or viewing experience, it just was turning a little boring as we were watching the same event occur more than once and were just itching for something more exciting to happen.

Whilst having the simple Victorian score and easy cinematography, without the performances and visually beautiful scenery there wouldn't be much appealing about it as it feels like a by the book story pumped out once again by a big studio. Simple as it may be it still holds up to be an empowering story with great heart and a strong nudge in the right direction and it ended up becoming a pretty enjoyable movie at the most.

To wrap this whole review up. Colette is definitely worth watching as its strong, bold and isn't scared to be heard!