‘Perfect lives’
Director: Benoît Delhomme
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Josh Charles
Year: 2024
Premiere: June 14, 2024
★★
‘Perfect Lives’ is released for the first time French cinematographer Benoît Delhommeis An almost identical ‘remake’ of the Franco-Belgian ‘Maternal Instinct’ (2018). Does it make sense to make a new version of a movie that’s only seven years old without adding new things? The only interesting aspect of this film is the presence of two American actresses who are much better known than those in the original film. Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, are also producers. The film is designed for them, and they both respond with successful performances in broad characters despite the psychological complexities they must have.
Times are changing in the United States of the early 60s, where John F. Kennedy aroused both admiration and suspicion. Delhomme, who, in addition to directing, is also responsible for photography that recreates the environments of the American bourgeoisie of the period, is overly cautious about what the story suggests. A frontline duel between two mothers after one of their sons dies in an accident. The story has a ‘grand guignol’ in the style of ‘Satanic’, so the director of the 1950s film or today’s filmmakers with a similar craft of excess could get much more out of it.