Coco Before Chanel

Viewer Rating:Aine has rated Coco Before Chanel rating: 3 Star

…which possibly isn't a bad thing but it's not going to change your life either. This movie does what it says on the tin, it deals with the life of Coco Chanel from when she was left at an orphanage up until her first proper show at her atelier. For a woman who revolutionised how modern women dress, I had expected something a bit more from this. I quite like Audrey Tautou, she does seem to be quite Chanel like (from pictures I've seen of her) so she is pretty perfect for the part. I do think that she's far better in other things she's done, she almost seems lethargic and insipid in quite a bit of this movie. It seems that the men in her life light up the screen more than she does, which is a great pity as she is the eponymous heroine of the piece. From humble beginnings and plying her trade in a dingy shop hemming ridiculously over dressed and flouncy women and singing burlesque something which she obviously detests, to upping sticks and following her first man to his estate in Paris and just moving herself in, it's clear that one of the things Chanel had in spades was drive. The second thing she had was an ability to lie and fabricate her past as she saw fit at any point she felt like it. It makes for confusing viewing at times when she's telling the same story to another person but with wildly different aspects to it. One loose end that bothered me was her sister. Her sister was part of the reason she up sticks and moved in with Etienne, her sister had moved to Paris and its surrounds with her baron – they are hugely in love (as Chanel's second lover points out) but once the action moves to Paris for real and Chanel is designing for real, we see her sister working for her when last we heard she was all loved up and happy. It does get confusing. The men of the piece are far more entertaining, they play off one another well, they do jealousy just enough. But Tautou's Chanel is just a cold fish. She doesn't really care about anything (or so it seems) so it becomes hard to relate and even care what happens to her or how it happens. The direction – so so, I think that having things slightly more controlled and dare I say it a little lighter would have helped the movie no end. You don't really get to see any of the style that characterised Chanel herself until the last 15/20 mins of the movie which is a shame. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad film by any stretch but it's just not good either. It's slow moving but precise but I think there's a lot of artistic license going on. The relationships between Coco and her sister could do with fleshing out – they're more like close friends than anything else and the relationships between Etienne and Coco and Boy and Coco could do with fleshing out. The only point we see any real emotion from Coco is when she does to see where Boy was killed and even that is quite fleeting. Maybe one for a lazy rainy day.

Review published on the 04 August 2009 11:24