Hortense Fauvel, the wife of a village postmaster, takes Aimée, a young shepherdess, under her wing. Aimée soon becomes engaged to François, the Fauvel’s loyal servant. At a fête hosted by the Count of Granval, Aimée gives her fiancé a knife, telling him that he should kill her if ever she ceases to be faithful to him. That same day, the Count is planning to have an amorous liaison with Hortense, but Aimée intervenes. To save her mistress from a scandal, Aimée tells the postmaster that it is she, not Hortense, who has been seeing the Count. Disgraced, Aimée is dismissed by the postmaster. François contemplates his revenge and recalls what Aimée said to him.
Typically in film, characters suffering from mental illness are used as plot devices or exaggerated for comedy. 'The House that Jack Built's representation exceeds in accuracy and realism of OCD.
'Playing with Fire' was clearly a film made for a kid or tween-ish audience. Keeping that in mind, I thought 'Playing with Fire' was alright, though it did portray some harmful stereotypes.
Overall, Matthias & Maxime doesn't reinvent this romantic concept. But it also doesn't need to. Dolan weaves a story of love, friendship, and life that is both realistic and bittersweet. The film is nuanced and sensual in a way we don't get to see often with LGBTQ characters. It's a film that we can celebrate.
Striving for validation. Let’s be frank….we ALL want to be successful. Whatever we put our efforts into, ideally it is to make it culminate in the best possible results across the board, especially when it comes to what career path we are pursuing. We WANT to excel, to shine, to advance, to be acknowledged. AND…let’s hope that we also wish to better everyone around us to boot. However, what occurs when those whom we initially put our trust in suddenly become a burden instead of a boon? Do we falter under the weight of rejection? Or STAND UP for WHO WE ARE?
If the message here is that without a support system, grieving people turn into monsters, it’s not really well-delivered and may be flawed as a message itself.
The story is a moving sentiment of letting go of the past and putting trust and faith into others. Though you come into this world alone, surrounding yourself with others that support you and want to help is the greatest gift life could ever give.
