Though it’s telling the stories of a group of youths that
are poised on the cusp of adulthood, André Téchiné’s Wild Reeds
feels oddly muted in its observations of its characters. Usually, movies about
young adults are overly dynamic and loud extravaganzas that celebrate graduation
from childhood as if it were an Olympic event, but Wild Reeds remains
low-key throughout, even when catchy pop songs are playing on its soundtrack.
Perhaps the setting, which is France at the end of the Algerian War, is part of
the reasoning behind the moody and unarticulated glumness that hangs over the
film, but it lends distinctness to the movie, in any case, and as the movie
progresses, that subdued tone becomes the movie’s greatest strength, since it
keeps the film’s plot events from ever feeling melodramatic. Telling the
stories of four young adolescents at a boarding school, Téchiné manages to
raise issues with such a light, careful touch that his script never becomes
about the issues instead of its specific circumstances. I can’t think of many
other films that deal with war, political strife, or homosexuality, as
thoroughly as this one does without overstepping into dogmatic lecturing.
There’s so much astute observation and nuance in the portrayals of the
characters here that when you combine it with the excellent ensemble acting
(with an especially good turn by Élodie Bouchez, as Maïté, the only girl in
the group of lead characters), you’re almost willing to forgive every
imaginable flaw.
The film’s insight and restraint are almost enough to make
you ignore some rough spots, but they still are worth mentioning. Téchiné
tarts up the movie with unnecessarily showy camera movements, and instead of
approximating the movement of the characters, as they seem intended to do, they
always pull you out of the action, and remind you that, yes, you are indeed
watching a movie. Otherwise, the rest of the film is rather gracefully
naturalistic, so the inclusion of this sort of formalist directorial showmanship
seems especially distracting. The plot also grows disappointingly contrived in
spots, particularly when dealing with the wanderings of Henri (Frédéric Gorny),
the slightly older, sullen Algerian socialist who profoundly affects each of the
other kids. There are also some superfluous scenes that show Maïté’s mother
in a mental hospital that seem clumsily integrated into what is otherwise a
specifically focused film. These are major flaws, especially in a film that's as
tightly controlled as this one, but so much of Wild Reeds is so superior
that it remains one of the more rewarding coming of age films of recent years.
