‘Vortex’: Gaspar Noe’s Slowest Movie is Also His Most Mature [Review]

Gaspar Noe’s latest, titled “Vortex,” is a 142 minute examination on old age and death. Not as much of a provocation as it is a slow-burn, this meditation on twilight love will surely isolate some of Noe’s fans who are looking more to be provoked. 

A film about an elderly couple; She (Francoise Lebrun) suffers of dementia and He (Dario Argento) is a retired film critic who reluctantly has to take care of her. The elderly couple’s grown son (Alex Lutz) tells them it’s time to move into an assisted living home, but dad wants to hear none of it — he can’t accept the sad reality that his wife’s memory is fading and his heart problems are worsening.

The comparisons to “Amour” are inevitable, which is quite surprising considering I always saw Noe as a filmmaker who tried to tackle new ground in his stories, not retread familiar stories. but the Michael Haneke comparisons will be made aplenty when it comes to “Vortex” — especially the all-too-predictable ending, which turns out to be the film’s biggest flaw.

This is an oddly accessible film from the Argentine-born filmmaker. In fact, the most Noe-esque experiment here might be the way the story is told via split screens, showcasing us the dueling daily rituals of the husband and wife. There barely is any plot, most of the dialogue was improvised off a 10-page concept sheet Noe, Argento and Lebrun worked together on, and the thrills, unusually so for a Noe, almost non-existent. 

Cinematographer Benoit Debie moves his camera in ways that follow the characters as they walk around the claustrophobic apartment. We watch them as they go about their lives - Argento delivering a performance full of charisma and energy, and Lebrun so subtly going from lucid to confused and back again, showing the fading of her character’s mind. 

It all amounts to Noe’s most mature work to date, a questioning of real-life dilemmas and the inevitable pitfalls that eventually come to all of us at old age. [B+]