Review: Black Heaven

A somewhat dopey young couple (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet and Pauline Etienne) find a seemingly abandoned mobile phone that belongs to a man exchanging cryptic messages with a mysterious woman. Some detective work leads the couple to a woodland area where the man and woman are in a car. On approach, our protagonists find the man and young woman are actually attempting to gas themselves. They intervene, saving the woman, a trashy blonde (played by Louise Bourgoin), but the man is unable to be revived. Leprince-Ringuet becomes obsessed with the blonde, trying to track her down. It turns out she is an obsessive gamer addicted to a game called ‘Black Hole’. He starts to play the game himself, hoping to woo her with his on-line avatar, whilst cruelly rejecting Etienne in the process (Someone has watched “Blue Velvet”, obviously). He’s hooked- but to the game? The girl? Both? This despite the warnings of the blonde’s rather intimidating brother, that she is mentally unstable, I might add. And things only get darker and more twisted from there.

 

Written and directed by Gilles Marchand, this 2010 thriller from France is disturbing, somewhat unpleasant, but at least it’s more interesting than your average film about teenagers. Co-written by Dominik Moll (Director of “Lemming”, which was written by Marchand), it also has something to say about how both computer games and girls can be addictive to a young man in their own way. And when you combine the two...look out. Points off for the dick lead character making out with a girl on her bed...with his shoes still on. Who the hell does that?

 

I’d call it a mixture of “The Virgin Suicides”, “Existenz”, and “Pretty Little Liars” (which I <cough> promise <cough> I’ve never watched...much), but even that doesn’t quite describe this rather weird, sometimes creepy and grim film. The film is pretty nicely shot at times, with nice woodland scenery early on, though obviously as the computer game storyline comes in, things become more insular. That game, by the way, is an hilariously twisted version of “Second Life”, which although I’ve had very limited exposure to it myself, I can see as being very addictive for some. Meanwhile, I have to say that not only is Louise Bourgoin extremely hot in a kind of trashy way, but Pauline Etienne has one helluva figure. Their performances, as with lead actor Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet are quite solid, but Bourgoin and Leprince-Ringuet (whose character is frankly a bit of a louse) definitely have the meatier characters, the former especially.

 

I found this film interesting and disturbing. It is absolutely NOT a feelgood experience under any circumstances, however.

 

Rating: B-