gizmomogwai Bring Denis Villeneuve back to Canada! Maelstrom is an early effort from the director who brought us Incendies (2010) and Arrival (2016), and a surprisingly strong one. This is from a director who's been hit and miss for me; Polytechnique and Sicario were overly dry, while Enemy was enormously derivative. Maelstrom is obviously a film with a unique vision, told by a dying fish. We have an abortion, which will enrage some of the audience, but playing Good Morning Starshine next as she leaves sets a humourous, ironic tone. Much of this tone prevails; while I was expecting something darker like Incendies, a colourful, unique tone runs throughout Maelstrom. After learning she accidentally kills a man with a vehicle, she confides in a stranger who tells her what's done is done; later, the son of the man falls in love with her, and in a quirk of fate, he confides in the same stranger who tells her what's done is done. Maelstrom is the kind of movie that's more than a movie; it's an experience like no other.

ajstuns Denis Villeneuve's weakest movie.a movie trying to display about sin and redemption.like all other 'guilty spoiled female protagonist' movies, she transformed into a new person.and then the funniest thing.our revenge seeking hero (who realized his enemy is a woman instead of a man) fall in love with her, have sex with her and that's the end of the film.

Nuno Duarte Denis Villeneuve does it with particular style. This time the poor girl is Bibiane Champagne (Marie-Josée Croze), she's supposed to be daughter of some very important figure. Unable to fulfil all the expectations, she easily gets quite depressed so she often over drinks and does drugs. The problems obviously appear. After a rough night at some club, while driving home with quite an excess of alcohol in her blood, half awake half asleep, she hits a fishmonger. Afraid, she doesn't stop and concluding the rest of her way home. When she wakes up next morning her problem start. She feels persecuted and haunted what she did. After drowning her car, maybe to kill evidences, maybe to eliminate what she believed to be reminding her of the incident. Few days later, the fishmonger she had hit before was found dead at home. Few days later, she meets that fishmonger's son. This whole story is brought to you by the strangest means: the mouth of a huge and heinous fish, in a table waiting to have its head cut. About Croze, I think I'm not the only one to think there is a big waste of a talent in there. Its title Maelström stands for a very powerful whirlpool, very useful in myths and legends. Although it appears dark and heavy, this movie is very refreshing. Dennis uses a lot of bright colours, especially white and blue to contrast with the old and dragged voice of the dying fish. 8/10

George Parker "Maelstrom" is all about Bibi (Croze) who has an abortion and then, traumatized and suffering pangs of guilt, she proceeds to perpetrate a series of felonies. So goes the plot of this amateurish film which is narrated by a fish. The upside of this subtitled French-Canadian film is good work by Croze and cast. However, the film shows an obvious lack of talent behind the lens. Uneven, herky-jerky, quirky to the absurd, with hackneyed irony, nonsense for filler, awful music, poor quality video and subtitling, and not fitting any genre, "Maelstrom" is one to be flushed. (D+)