The Beast review – a mind-boggling, sprawling romantic epic

Of the many pop culture assets that Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast calls to mind, perhaps the most obvious is Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, about a couple whose devastating break-up prompts them to erase all memory of each other. Despite this, the pair are destined to reunite, with the now-iconic instruction: ​“Meet me in Montauk.” Gondry’s countryman Bonello shares an interest in the cosmic nature of destiny and love – but takes a wildly different approach to it all. Based on Henry James’ novella ​‘The Beast in the Jungle’, the film is a reflection on fate and emotion; what we choose to express and suppress.

Across decades we witness Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay) enter into each other’s orbit – in 1910, 2014, and 2044. When we watch them meet at a party during the Belle Époque, Louis informs Gabrielle it’s not the first time they’ve met, and she previously told him something that disturbed him. It is revealed that Gabrielle is plagued by a sense of extraordinary fear, as though something terrible lurks right around the corner (the ​‘Beast’ from which James’ story and Bonello’s film draw their title). Despite this fear and her marriage to an earnest dollmaker, she is drawn to Louis.

Meanwhile, in 2014 Gabrielle is a model in LA, attempting to transition into an acting career. Louis is a bitter, misogynistic and entitled young man who despises women due to his lack of romantic success. He vlogs about how unfairly the world has treated him. In the future timeline, an unmentioned plague has decimated society and AI has taken over. The few humans left work menial jobs; Gabrielle applies for a more challenging position, only to be told she must undergo a procedure to confront her past lives, which the AI claims are making her unbalanced.

Over the course of two-and-a-half hours, we accompany Gabrielle on a tour of her past lives, as she confronts potent feelings and the cruelty of fate. Despite being a sort-of love story, Gabrielle is often alone, and the film leans on Seydoux’s excellent performance. She differentiates between the three versions of Gabrielle in the most subtle ways, so that they avoid feeling like the same woman but also resemble one another. MacKay – who arrived at the film after the tragic death of Bonello’s close friend Gaspard Ulliel – makes for a great foil.

Recurring motifs – pigeons, dolls, fortune tellers, Roy Orbison’s ​‘Evergreen’ – further thread the trio of narratives together, creating a coherence despite the out-there concept. These totems both ground and haunt Gabrielle as she realises she must choose between repression and expression of her emotions in a world where it’s considered detrimental. But Bonello’s impish sense of humour means love is never quite as simple as finding the person you’re meant to be with.

Although the first 40 minutes in the buttoned-up period setting do drag a little, once The Beast finds its groove, its imaginative and melodramatic spirit are hard to resist. It’s a big swing for the fences from a singular French filmmaker, and one that absolutely pays off.

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