Lyssa Beyer

As soon as “Love Me If You Dare” begins, it immediately attempts to mimic films like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Science of Sleep.” With fast camera movement, rapid editing and quick dialogue, the film initially attempts to suggest it will be in the same ball park as those films. The problem is, it isn’t.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” was a great movie, and one of the better love story movies in recent memory, simply because of how great Jim Carrey was at creating a character that was easy to sympathize with. And although I loathed “The Science of Sleep” with a passion, whenever I hear someone say they liked it I can at least acknowledge the fact that the male lead in that film was vulnerable in the film’s love story.

Maybe had “Love Me If You Dare” worked early on at making Sophie Kowalsky, played by Marion Cotillard, the main character of the film it would have worked better and appealed to me more, seeing as though she is the film’s most vulnerable character.

But unfortunately, the film takes most of its time to develop Julien Janvier, played by Guillaume Canet, as its main character. Not to suggest the character could not have been made vulnerable, which may have made the film better, had actual logical steps been taken to create this sense. But when shots are shown early on of Julien as a child acting outrageously because his mother, played by Emmanuelle Gr”nvold, has cancer and his father, played by Gérard Watkins, actually disciplines him, it is hard for me to feel for the character even when he is a child, which would usually put him at his most vulnerable. Having a mother with cancer and having a dad who actually punishes you for urinating in a principal’s office just doesn’t give anyone, more specifically, Julien, the right to act out. Perhaps this reasoning is why the film just never struck a chord with me?

As the film tells us early on, Julien and Sophie met when they were kids. They began to dare each other to do outrageous things, pissing pretty much everyone they knew off, and eventually forming a bond somehow through this that lasted until they were in high school when more than being friends begins to interfere with the two attractive adults. Of course though, Julien decides to leave Sophie behind for college. For some reason we are then supposed to feel sorry for the lad when he realizes he made a mistake and regrets the decision for four years, and then is turned down by Sophie after he looks her up when he finally obtains his degree.

If a male character is going to be the lead in a romantic movie, then they better make the girl mad for doing something dumb such as whatever Tom Hanks does to Meg Ryan in every movie the two have starred in together. The truth is I could not feel bad for Julien when he made the mistake initially of leaving Sophie behind. And then to top it all off I am apparently supposed to feel bad once he gets rejected by her and she dares him to leave her alone for ten years and he copes by getting a wife and two kids while planning to leave them all behind the second the ten years are over.

When I see a movie that could have been better, it tends to bug me more than if I see a movie that is just flat out bad and could not be improved. “Love Me If You Dare” could have easily been better, so that may have bugged me more than anything. But additionally, I am also bugged when movies attempt to mimic other movies as if to suggest that they belong in that same class, much like this film did with “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” It is in no way, shape or form even remotely close to being on that level of greatness, nor is it even remotely being close to the other film it tries to mimic, “The Science of Sleep,” which was on a mediocre level at best.