NZIFF Review: ‘Mood Indigo’

Michel Gondry is one of the most visually interesting filmmakers working today, because he doesn’t rely on computers to build his special effects. Here, in a futuristic Paris that looks retro, Gondry adapts the whimsical Boris Vian novel, Froth on the Daydream to the big screen as a stylistic feast of imagery.

Colin is a handsome, wealthy man who lives with only a servant – until his best friend falls in love, and he decides he needs to as well. He meets Chloe and the rest of the film traces the path of their romance from beginning to end.

The film’s tone and visual style follow the trajectory of the romance too, with the early scenes as light and frothy as falling in love for the first time can feel. When Chloe becomes ill, and Colin is forced to spend every penny he has on treatment for her, the tone darkens and Colin’s apartment begins shrinking and dimming into blackness.

The final scenes are mostly without dialogue and shot in black and white to reflect a world that has lost all its colour and shine, completing the cycle of a relationship, of a life. This may not sound cheerful, and it’s not. But the joy from the early part of the film trickles through the sadness at the end to remind us that it’s the happy moments that give us the strength to endure the inevitable hardships that every life provides.

While visually an absolute delight, I found this film completely unengaging on an emotional level. None of the characters engendered any sympathy or, in fact, any emotional reaction at all. I wanted to care about Colin and Chloe and their tragic love story, but I didn’t. So I spent much of the film simply marvelling at the inventiveness of the visuals and the way they became increasingly ominous as Chloe’s health deteriorated.

It may be slick and stylish, but without something beneath the surface to grab onto, Mood Indigo is ultimately a disappointment.

5/10

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