Mouton or Sheep is the nick name of a 17 year old who as the film opens is given his independence from his parents. He then goes off to a seaside town where he gets a job as a chef's assistant. All is good until an event occurs which changes the lives of everyone.
For much of the film's running time it is a wonderful slice of Mouton's life. We watch as he works, plays and generally goes about his life. Its been described as a almost a cinema verite study, and in many ways it is. If you didn't know that it was fiction you would swear that much of the film is a documentary.
The trouble is that just past the half way point the film changes. Mouton who had been the center of the film effectively disappears when a man randomly cuts off his arm with a chainsaw. Its an odd random act that alters things and changes the film's focus to everyone Mouton left behind in his circle of friends. How you react to the change in the film will determine how you react to the film as a whole.
The point of it all is to illustrate the randomness of life, but for me the shift is too radical, too extreme. Life is random yes but a chainsaw attack is just freaking strange especially in the circumstances here. Had Mouton been stabbed or beaten I would have accepted it more readily. The bits that follow also seem a tad too random as well.
For me its a matter of the first half being great, but the second half just being okay.
The film plays March 20 and 22
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