Elle (2016), R, ★★★

Isabelle Huppert as Michelle, a recent rape victim.

This is one of the toughest reviews I've had to write because this movie is heavily discussed on the sensitive topic of rape. Going into this movie, all I knew was that this was a Paul Verhoeven film that tackles the same subjects of sexual aggression and violence but I did not know that the movie turns around a character that is a rape victim and challenges the attacker to insert his demonized ways into his game of corruption to take advantage of the opportunity with his victim. I know it is messed up and does not seem to make a lot of sense, but in a way, this movie examines a rape aftermath in an honest way that it does not become as offensive. Even though there are definite problems in this movie in my opinion, the one strong aspect that is hard to resist and made me recommend the film is Isabelle Huppert's courageous performance.

Michèle LeBlanc (Isabelle Huppert) is the head of a successful video game company and in the beginning of the movie, she is raped by an unknown assailant that wears a ski mask. Then in a very confusing turn, she just moves on with her life, not calling the police. She has a somewhat unstable and flawed life: she is detached from his son, Vincent (Jonas Bloquet), who is in denial that her mixed-race child is his own, does not like her narcissistic mother, has an affair with Robert (Christian Berkel), who is her best friend's, Anna's (Anne Consigny), husband and is sexually obsessed with her new neighbor, Patrick (Laurent Lafitte) who is married to Rebecca (Virginie Efira).

Michèle is in the midst of a media frenzy because her father is a serial killer so therefore, she does not report the rape as it will cause more coverage and makes her private life non-existent. Following the rape, she becomes suspicious of all the men in her life from her neighborhood to her workplace. When the same assailant comes back to perform the same act, Michèle uncovers the mask to find that it was someone she did not expect it to be.

I understand the movie but I don't understand the further reasoning behind the evolution of why this person was continuing to rape or debatably some distinct pleasure for Michèle. To me, in the third act, it becomes a rather silly erotic psychological thriller and conclusion than an empowering film because Verhoeven takes his facets of skillfully crafted films like Basic Instinct and Showgirls, two films that I heavily dislike, and put them into context to create some sort of entertainment behind it. I truly like its set-up in which Verhoeven just skims the surface of borderline exploitation from the start as an attention go-getter to truly feel for Michèle and then uncover the truth in the middle portion of the story. He commits and never backs away from the disturbing situation.

Huppert is electrifying as her character performs a full turn on her problem and performs the solution with questionable backing. Her aloof and mysterious personality is a trademark to Verhoeven's signature aphrodisiac style that his style is put into context in this movie in another angle from both a personal and emotional point of view. I can see her getting a nomination for her standout performance.

Now, as for me, I did not know how to feel after this movie was over because I do not know if I liked it because even though the message is empowering and faithful to Verhoeven's traits of eroticism and suspense in both the story and the character, the story takes a wrong turn as the film becomes unnecessarily farsical as to how she is playing her attacker. His approach is a good and unique idea but somehow its execution becomes too abrupt to become provocative and not reach a justifiable conclusion. Does it have anything to do with her media frenzy or her supposed "mid-life" crisis? I do not know. But, somehow, the second revelation in the ending became extraneous in my mind. But, based on its message, courageous execution and Isabelle Huppert's performance, I am going to recommend it but with reservations.

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