"Amour" Unflinchingly, Heartbreakingly Looks at Love in Old Age

Amour is not an easy film to sit through, but it's not a film that's intended to be easy to swallow. It stares its subject matter straight down with brutal honesty and quiet dignity. It's an undeniably uncomfortable, deeply intimate and realistic portrait of an elderly couple's struggles when one suffers a stroke, her health slowly deteriorating.

When Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) suggests they just euthanize her and avoid the inevitable consequences of this, her husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) responds, "What would you do if you were in my shoes?" When wedding vows are spoken we sometimes take for granted that "for better or for worse" and "until death do us part" are commitments we are taking upon ourselves. And Amour shows its titular meaning of "love" throughout the film; depicting love in old age and in the face of health problems with nuance and earnestness. Love evolves with age and time spent with a significant other, and the film puts this love to the test and its breaking point. Georges begins looking at the woman he knows is his wife and she starts to become a shell of her former self, barely resembling the person he fell in love with.

At the heart of this is the fantastic performances of Riva and Trintignant who build a whole history of a relationship before our eyes. It's not devastating just because Anne grows steadily ill but because Georges stands so steadfastly by her side even as she barely recognizes his presence. And the film takes us step by step through the mental and physical regression that Anne goes through and the consequences this has on those around her.

There's a haunting beauty to the film. It's a dark, devastating film but also a highly humanistic one. It's lump in the throat, mature, and complex emotional examination of love in old age and the effects of a stroke is heart-wrenching.

Grade: A