8. Jeux d’enfants (2003); Are you game?

Love Me If You Dare

Written and directed by Yann Samuell

Starring Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard

This movie follows two childhood friends, Julien and Sophie (Canet and Cotillard), and a game of dares that lasts their whole life. The game revolves around a tin container in the shape of a merry-go-round. Whichever of the two have the box have to dare the other something they must do. The game continues throughout their lives- from grade school, to college, through marriage, and even death. The game drives their relationship to interesting levels and completely changes their life.

I thought that the general idea and plot of this movie was pretty awesome. To think that one game would continue to entertain two people for years and years is just unbelievable, but it was really entertaining to watch. I loved how some of the dares were really serious while others were simple ones, such as urinating in front of their principle. I was glad that some simpler dares happened later in the film- it reminded me how long their game-playing was actually lasting and gave the two characters more child-like motivation.

I thought that Julien’s relationship with his mom was very sweet, but I wished that they had shown her interacting with Sophie more throughout the film. We knew that Julien’s father didn’t care for her, but I am only assuming that his mother liked her- I don’t remember their relationship being well-established at all.

The death of Julien’s mother was a huge section of the plot and definitely affected the relationship between Julien and his father. I thought the way that their relationship paralleled the relationship between him and Sophie was great. It seemed that when Julien and his father were fighting, his friendship with Sophie was great, and vice versa. I thought it was a great way to unconsciously present this effect that he is constantly making decisions and choosing between them throughout the film.

During the entire movie, I had this feeling of an underlined religious belief attached to all the characters. About halfway through the movie, I came to the conclusion that the feeling I was sensing was not about religion at all. I think that it was more the rebellion against anything else that didn’t incorporate their game. That was the only thing in Sophie and Julien’s life that truly made sense and that seemed worth continuing.

During the very end of the movie, between my thoughts of “Did that really just happen?!”, I realized that it was kind of depressing. After watching the entire movie you realize that they had been kind of trapped by this game. It is all they care about and they take it WAY to seriously. I highly doubt that the way Julien and Sophie religiously played “the game” was the way that Julien’s mother wanted them to spend their life. But I didn’t think these thoughts until during the end of the movie, so I guess overall the whole thing was still really intriguing.

It was a pretty entertaining movie. On the Becki scale- I award it a 6.