English Movie 2009 Give Me Your Hand
Cast And Crew
Starring Alexandre Carril, Victor Carril,
Anaïs Demoustier , and Samir Harrag
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Pascal-Alex Vincent
Martin Drouot
Olivier Nicklaus
Directed by: Pascal-Alex Vincent
Release Date: Theatrical: September 11, 2009
Running Time: 80 minutes, Color
Origin: France Germany
Reviews
Antoine and Quentin are 18-year-old twins who live with their father and work as bakers in a bucolic French village. When their estranged mother dies in Spain, they set off to attend the funeral, without telling their father. The journey turns out to be more difficult than either had anticipated and a rift threatens to split the brothers apart. The brothers must struggle to accept each other as individuals, and to find their places in an uncertain world.
Give Me Your Hand (Donne-moi la main) opened in New York City to weak reviews. • Ronnie Scheib wrote in Daily Variety, "...humorless, two-note road movie... The wooden lead duo make the taciturn stars of 'Two-Lane Blacktop' (the pic's obvious template) look positively hammy." • Nicolas Rapold wrote in the Village Voice, "The voyeuristic cavorting is the film's only real attempt at tapping the twins' mirror images for something deeper, and it's rendered futile by the Carril brothers' range: sullen to expressionless." • And Mike Hale wrote in the New York Times, "Pascal-Alex Vincent’s first feature, 'Give Me Your Hand,' harks back to an earlier and much better film, Bertrand Blier’s 'Going Places' (1974)."
Pascal-Alex Vincent’s first feature, "Give Me Your Hand," harks back to an earlier and much better film, Bertrand Blier’s "Going Places" (1974). Two young men of less than sterling character take a road trip across France, finding and discarding sexual partners as they go. In Mr. Vincent’s film, the men are identical twins (played by Alexandre and Victor Carril), on their way to Spain for their mother’s funeral, and the partners are of both sexes.
Neither of those new wrinkles adds much interest, however. The twins constantly argue and fight, but we never find out why. Their sometimes violent actions seem to be motivated by shared jealousy and protectiveness, but the Carrils are so inexpressive and the script so sketchy that we never have much of a stake in figuring it out. Nothing in the film approaches the energy and joy Mr. Blier and his stars, Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere, brought to "Going Places."
Some viewers may enjoy "Give Me Your Hand" simply as an excuse to gaze at the Carril brothers — it’s not so hard to believe that everyone their characters meet wants to have sex with one or the other or both of them. And as the story goes south, literally and figuratively, in the film’s second half, the landscape, at least, becomes increasingly dramatic.
GIVE ME YOUR HAND
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
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