Wolf | A little toothless ★★★

Suffering from lycanthropy, Jacob, a young adult, is admitted to an institution specializing in the healing of people mistaking themselves for animals. While approaching Cecile, a woman believing to be a wild cat, Jacob discovers that the director of the institution is a sadist with inhuman methods.

André Duchesne
Press

In a psychiatric institution where all the patients think they are animals, from parrot to horse, from panda to squirrel, Jacob (George MacKay) is admitted, suffering from lycanthropy; he thinks he is a wolf.

The tone is set for this singular, strange film, with a refined setting and whose emotional charge keeps us at the end of our chair from start to finish. Decidedly, Wolf is a feature film that does not cut corners and whose originality will not leave anyone indifferent.

The story centers around Jacob, whose path will soon cross that of Cecile (Lily-Rose Depp; The dancer) who thinks they are a wild cat. Will they kill each other? Bite your blood? No ! Constantly oscillating between the human side and their animal side, Jacob and Cecile will get closer, tame, desire each other. But in their situation, nothing is simple. We are not in a standardized romanticism! Jacob must choose between the two lives that pull him apart.

At the start of the film, under the care of the D^D Gentle-method Angeli (Eileen Walsh), Jacob, Cecile and everyone else admitted to this clinic are making progress. But these are not permanent. It was then that the D^r Mann (Paddy Considine), also identified as the zookeeper, intervenes with increasingly radical methods and borrows from torture.

Nothing can stop the D^r Mann and the story then switches to the horror film. Also dehumanized, the D^r Mann is even wilder than his patients.

Frontally, Wolf questions our relationship to power in a context where we should normally provide care. Nathalie Biancheri’s approach forces reflection, which is appreciable.

On the interpretation side, the actors had to find the right tone to make their character believable. They succeed and are convincing. They do not force the note, are not caricatured.

The film is driven by a great rise in power. But the story crashes a bit in the last act. We have nothing against open endings, but here, we leave too many things in the air, too many questions unanswered, to find satisfaction. Wolf then loses some teeth. It is kind of a shame.

Wolf is presented in theaters in the original English version only.

Drama, thriller

Wolf

Nathalie Biancheri

With George MacKay, Lily-Rose Depp and Paddy Considine

1 h 38

★★★