Review: Irreversible (2002)

Title: Irreversible (2002, French with English Subtitles.)
Starring: Vincent Casal and others
Edited and Directed by: Gaspar Noe

Verdict: This French movie is a shocker and will show you ugly parts of life you may not have seen before.  Watch it if you can withstand watching disturbing scenes. Score: 6.5 out of 10.


I got hooked right at the start mainly because of the scary background score. That was like an appetizer for a thriller or a horror movie or an expose of the human psyche told as a  thriller. The initial scenes where some horrible incident is shown in a very mysterious way, the ever jumping camera which keeps rolling around itself showing some kind of scary underground sex camp under dull red lights, made for very curious and daring cinema.

After a few scenes I realized this movie is being told in the 'reverse chronological order' made famous by Memento which was released in 2000, two years earlier than this film. The technique is to show what happened first - usually a shocking scene and then follow it with the scene of what led to it. This sequence repeats one after the other for entire movie, eventually ending with the start of the story.  The movie opens with a  violent murder at a gay bar, involving the lead characters Marcus (Vincent Casal)  and Pierre (Albert Dupontel). Then  for the rest of the movie we see the background that led  to this incident.

The sadistic and inhuman incident that happens in the tunnel (three fourth into the movie) is the most important incident in the movie. That is the seed of the movie's story. Since the movie is being told in reverse order I think the movie should have stopped at that point. That explains everything.  What follows after this feels like a different movie. The conversations between the two leading men and the leading woman Alex(Monica Bellucci) is so overdrawn that I got bored of it after a few minutes. And that 'romance' scene between Marcus and Alex was really cheesy. I felt we could have understood the movie without it.   I should mention that I got tired of seeing their nude romance. I felt like saying 'oh please get out of bed and go and do something else'.  That is just one gripe but otherwise the movie was a very unique experience.


The film holds the audience attention completely for most part with it's brisk editing and a different way of story telling. The music by Tomas Bengalter is superb. Gaspar Noe directs the movie as well as edits it, giving him a greater control on the way the movie is told. Camera work by Benoiy Debie and Gaspar Noe is fascinating due to unconventional angles. It shows the movie from all 360 degrees.   


Vincet Casal as the main protagonist Marcus acts with abandon. It feels like the character was written with him in mind.  I have liked his performance in Mesirine, Black Swan and a couple of other movies. The other two actors have done a good job too.


This French movie is a shocker and will show you ugly parts of life you may not have seen before (I mean in movies ).  Watch it if you can withstand watching disturbing scenes and events.

I will give it 6.5 on 10.