Rust and Bone

Anyone who talks to me a lot about films and TV will know that I'm very interested in knowing what the plot is.  One of the biggest criticisms of the recent Star Trek reboot part 2 was that the plot (where it existed) was thin to the point of breaking.  The slightest question about the motivations of the characters would be likely to bring it crashing down.  It is interesting then that with Rust and Bone, we have a film for which the plot cannot be easily summarised, but is entirely the opposite of that Star Trek movie.  Allow me to attempt a summary for your consumption:

Matthias Schoenaerts plays Alain, a simple man with a simple talent to whom we are introduced when he is trying to hitch a ride with his son to stay with his sister.  Marion Cotillard is Stephanie, a woman who works at the local sea life park and is terribly injured when one of the shows she is performing with a whale goes horribly wrong.  Stephanie and Alain meet at a night club where he is working and he helps her get home.  After her accident the pair become close friends, then lovers as Stephanie struggles to cope with a new life without legs.

When we are introduced to Alain he looks like a bit of a vagrant.  He takes work as a bouncer, as a warehouse worker in a factory and finally as a bare-knuckle fighter as he muddles his way through life trying to provide for him and his son.  Alain does have something special about him though, Alain is relentlessly honest.  Not once does Alain lie, cheat, or even contemplate foul play in anything he does, and it is this refreshing honesty in his treatment of a legless Stephanie that draws him and her closer together.

As far as plot goes that's sort of it.  But this is not a film in which the what is important, it's a character-based story in which the how, the why and the journey are important.  Now that might sound a bit pretentious, but it's the truth about a film that takes us on a journey through the lives of two interesting characters and the people around them.  For those of you out there who bloody love special effects, well there's a treat for you too.  I assume that there was a combination of effects and careful use of camera angles involved, but the effects that turn Marion Cotillard into a double-amputee are excellent.