''Amour'' (2012 movie)- Review

Directed by: Michael Haneke
Released: 2012
Country: Austria, France, Germany

Genres: Drama

Main cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alaxandre Tharaud

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review

Amour is a hauntingly beautiful film. It is emotionally intense and reflects a reality- about the misery that comes in old age, and how love always remains the same, in spite of the miseries and sufferings that attack people. The film reflects the fact that we feel terrible when we see a loved person suffer in a terrible way, and we do all we can to protect them, to try to return to them the happiness that they deserve, the happiness that they once had, even knowing that perhaps these efforts will someday not work anymore. This is a film reflecting the sufferings, and the terrible things that we face in our old age.
 
 The film brought tears to my eyes. It is a lovely film, beautiful and emotional.

The two leads- Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, give powerful performances, and they are supported by the wonderful Isabelle Huppert.

Georges and his wife Anne are both in their eighties. Despite of being so aged, they still deeply love each other and it can be said that they live a happy life. But however, one morning, Georges notices that Anne is not responding to anything, but after a while, she is all right once again. After a surgery, her right side becomes paralyzed, and she has to depend on a wheelchair for movements. Eventually her condition starts deteriorating. She does not want to go to a hospital or a care home.

Georges takes care of Anne himself. Though he is himself so aged, he takes care of Anne all by himself (with a little help from a doctor and nurses and a neighbor). Their daughter, Eva (Isabelle Huppert), repeatedly requests Georges to put Anne in a nursing home or a hospital. But Georges does not listen to her. He nurses Anne all by himself. But some day, this will all end--- decades of love, decades of shared smiles and happiness, will end one day...

The film is very intense--- and much of the applauds go to Jean-Louis Trintignant (as Georges) and Emmanuelle Riva (as Anne)  for bringing their characters to life, bringing the intensity of the screenplay to life.  The incidences shown in the film are themselves so heartbreaking- Georges is also elderly; he is also weak, but he will not give up, he will not put his dear wife solely under the care of doctors. Despite his old age, he nurses his wife sweetly, tells her stories, feeds her... He knows very well that one day it will all be over. And that's what makes everything so sad. The film not only shows us the miseries of life, but it is also a portrait of what can happen in old age.

In this film, we see two elderly people completely dependent on each other. If something so horrible happens to one of them, how can the other person survive without the love which he has received for decades? Amour is a heartbreaking film, has a sad and moving story, and I would absolutely recommend it.