There’s a pervasive malaise that hangs over Claude Schmitz’s THE OTHER LAURENS. It’s a sense that nothing matters. Generally in neo-noir something will hook our hapless protagonist and in turn the audience to pull us along with the current of the winding plot. Even neo-noirs that ostensibly operate as comedies still have this element of obsession to them. The Dude’s rug really tied the room together and away we go.
Gabriel Laurens (Olivier Rabourdin) seems to sleepwalk through the events of THE OTHER LAURENS. When we meet him he’s a private investigator specializing in extramarital affairs with a mother with rapidly declining health. When she dies he finds himself on the hook for the debt related to her care because his brother, who was responsible for footing that particular bill, hasn’t made a payment in five months. Gabriel doesn’t seem particularly distraught over his mother’s death and the newly acquired debt is treated as a minor irritant despite its catastrophic size. This establishes a precedent for the character. He doesn’t seem particularly interested in anything and, unfortunately, the movie itself isn’t intrigued with his disinterest.
Gabriel’s niece, Jade (Louise Leroy), shows up and informs Gabriel that his twin brother, Francois, died as a result of drunk driving. Jade isn’t buying and believes foul play was involved. Gabriel ends up accepting the case and reacts to word of his brother’s death with the same emotional intensity as everything else. Fortunately at this point we have Leroy, who seems committed to carrying this film on her back and plays marvelously off Rabourdin’s muted and dulled reactions. There’s an earnestness to her performance which keeps the viewer engaged as they explore Schmitz’s neon soaked European landscape.
We’ll need Leroy and the excellent cinematography to hold our attention as the plot lurches into parody rapidly. Neo-noirs are often known for having an abundance of plot and characters. Generally the beauty of their structure is that as the film wears on, characters disappear and plot threads fall away until a clear, singular voice is left articulating the film’s themes. THE OTHER LAURENS seems amused by the way neo-noirs start with an abundance of plot, but it never really whittles down the players, making for a busy, cacophonous mess. We have a biker gang, a crime boss, a femme fatale, a wicked stepmother, an American looking for one last score, and a couple of bumbling cops. These all intersect.
What should be the most interesting component of the film falls flat because of Gabriel’s apparent disinterest in most things. Since he’s investigating the disappearance of his identical twin it doesn’t take long for people to mistake him for his brother—or in some cases literally think he’s a ghost. Over the course of the film Gabriel starts to adopt more of the dress and mannerisms of his brother, eventually navigating his life. Doppelgängers have been the bread and butter of noir since its inception. This kind of mirroring usually says something about the character experiencing it or those that perceive them as the double. Just as with excessive plotting, it only seems to offer sneering awareness that it is a noir trope with nothing meaningful beneath the surface.
Most bizarrely the film seems only interested in tossed off criticism of the United States. Fairly early on the film tries to tie our twin brothers to, no shit, The World Trade Center. Footage from 9/11 is repeatedly intercut in the film as if it was trying to adopt the pseudo documentary grit of Oliver Stone atop its noir conceits. Probably the most memorable scene of the film is when Gabriel tells Jade where he was on 9/11 and how the attack on the towers directly led to him discovering his then girlfriend—and Jade’s mother—was having an affair with Francois. It’s like Schmitz is trying to say something about how Americans make 9/11 about themselves. Francois’s home in the film is gaudy, tacky and looks like it’s from a ’90s direct to video erotic thriller. It’s decor is ugly and ostentatious. Of course it’s called The White House. Because Schmitz can’t be bothered to focus his themes in a meaningful way it’s unclear whether this is a general criticism of the ugliness of Americans or the stale Western European criticism of the new world as child nations unable to decide how to manage their own affairs. The film’s requisite American character is ex-military and has multiple speeches about his time in the military. Considering he’s in the film “looking for one last score” he seems to function as criticism of the profiteering nature of American military action.
I have no great love for American foreign policy, and generally hold it in contempt, but this film’s path to criticism of the US is puzzling. It could have adopted a plot that makes more space for it alongside IN THE LOOP or BURN AFTER READING. It could have honed its use of genre tropes to criticize the US like MARS ATTACKS. Instead the film seems bogged down in saying ‘neo-noir is overstuffed, confusing claptrap.’ It’s an incredible alchemy for a film to both play in a genre and critique the genre at the same time. SCREAM is so notable because it is hard to do well. Considering the ultimate resolution of Bunny Lebowski’s location and the backdrop of the Gulf War, THE BIG LEBOWSKI could also be read as a critique of the neo-noir and the impact of American military policy. Walter literally tries to profiteer in the film in between speeches about Vietnam and since Bunny Lebowski “kidnapped herself” the whole affair is a shaggy dog story. But the Coen’s film is light, effortless, and its cynicism never feels like it’s admonishing the audience. THE OTHER LAURENS scolds the US and the viewer but doesn’t have the discipline to level a coherent thesis as to why.
It’s not all a bummer. Louise Leroy is great and every frame of the film is carefully constructed. As a purely visual piece of art it’s deeply satisfying. Deep splashes of color and chiaroscuro between arcs of neon give it a crunchy contrast that is super fun to look at. The score is undoubtedly a bop. It reminded me of the score to another neo-noir, DRIVE, and has an equally satisfying synthy quality. Whether a viewer might have a good time here is dependent on how easily they can immerse themselves in the vibe and discard the nonsensical quality to the plot. I’m no stranger to being carried on vibes; earlier this year SHE IS CONANN became one of my favorites of the year largely through vibes. My stumbling block here and what others might have difficulty getting over is this is a genre generally built on central characters with intriguing interiority and meticulous plotting and the real mystery of THE OTHER LAURENS is why those are missing.
them, not even once. When he’s not disappointing his cats he’s watching and writing about film.
His interests run toward naturalism, SOV and forgotten thrillers. Against his better judgment he
has hosted a podcast, Impossible Coin, for six years.
Tags: Burn After Reading, Claude Schmitz, Drive, In the Loop, Loise Leroy, Mars Attacks, Olivier Rabourdin, Scream, She Is Conann, The Big Lebowski, The Other Laurens
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