Jacob has just been entrusted by his parents to a specialized center. On the spot, we promise to bring him back to the right path of normality. It’s inside, Jacob is not like most people. He is convinced to inhabit the wrong body: his true nature is that of a wolf. Allegory of transidentity, but also of homosexuality through a decor distinctly inspired by conversion camps, Wolf does not lack ambition, in addition to starting from a noble intention.
Second feature film by Nathalie Biancheri, noticed with her first film Nocturnal (unpublished in Quebec), Wolf seduced by its craftsmanship and its choice of staging. The filmmaker, for example, composes wide shots with studied geometry where she deliberately places the young “patients” in eccentric positions (their heads are completely cut off by the frame in a scene) so as to exacerbate their feeling of marginality, even of alienation.
In this regard, Nathalie Biancheri had the good idea to open with a prologue camped in the forest showing a single and naked Jacob in full animal communion. The bucolic poetry of the moment, coupled with close-ups of the protagonist’s tense muscles, immediately makes patent the concept of species dysphoria on which the plot is based.
However, the director and screenwriter situates the film in a reality where said dysphoria is sufficiently common that centers such as the one where Jacob ended up have been set up. The place is part of both the junk zoo and the sanitized clinic, a visually striking mix (excellent artistic direction by Joe Fallover).
The master of the house is also nicknamed “ the Zookeeper (The zookeeper), and his “treatments” are as extreme as they are reprehensible. Unfortunately, the character turns out to be one-dimensional and caricature, an impression reinforced by the forced play of Paddy Considine. A more “human” antagonist would have terrified more. What is more frightening than the cruelty rife under the guise of kindness, one of the components of these implicitly denounced places? However, the film misses the mark on this plan. On others as well.
Strange dichotomy
We think especially of this (inevitable?) Love affair that takes shape between Jacob and the (inevitably?) Mysterious Wildcat, a long-time patient who has entered the center. Wildcat is not so much a character as a narrative presence, in that it remains in many ways an enigma – this could be seen as valid bias or laziness in writing, as the case may be.
Either way, this romance, which is supposed to be all the more romantic because it is banned, does not work despite the excellent work of the performers. Indeed, George MacKay, already formidable in Marrowbone(Sergio G. Sanchez, 2017) and 1917(Sam Mendes, 2019), amazes in the role of Jacob: his investment is total and the resulting performance, visceral. Note that the actor collaborated with the famous coach movement Terry Notary (Avatar).
Imparted with a score, it was evoked, less fleshed out, Lily-Rose Depp (Beasts, 2018), daughter of Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp, also convinces with a game that is as physical as it is charismatic.
Why then does the romance clash? Simply because, on the one hand, Nathalie Biancheri strives to construct this evocative LGBTQIA + allegory, while on the other, she confines herself to resting everything on a couple made up of a magnificent young man and a magnificent young woman: difficult to be more heteronormative. Despite its fine qualities, this dichotomy between intention and execution makes the demonstration obsolete.