I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: foul language

Rated:

Claire Danes has become one of my favorite actresses. Perhaps it's the diversity in her roles that keeps her ever-changing. I knew nothing about this one when I found it in the library... but it had Jude Law and Claire Danes in it. That was enough to provoke interest, risk the PG13 rating, and bring it home. As it turns out, this is one of the more "unique" of her films... a challenging role Claire steps into with all the authority and conviction of a sublime actress. This is the stuff she's made of.

Daisy (Claire Danes) is a self-conscious, frightened teenager who doesn't feel as though she fits into the high-class snobbery of her pricey private school. Her parents are completely enamored with each other, enough so that they often drop her off at the house of her Grandmother Nana (Jeanne Moreau) while on their many romantic excursions abroad. This is providential, for Nana is the only person who understands Daisy. Always encouraging and loving, she attempts to draw her granddaughter out of her shell. Nana is a Holocaust survivor. As a child she was taken into a concentration camp and branded with a series of numbers on her forearm. Daisy is morbidly fascinated with her grandmother's past, always provoking her to reveal little tidbits of her life, which are often painful to tell.

Bookish and quiet, Daisy also is in love with one of the boys in her class, wealthy, sophisticated straight-A student Ethan (Jude Law), who barely gives her the time of day. As he says it, she has "sad Daisy eyes" that become windows into her soul. But all of that changes when she is asked to write a poem for class and courageously sends him a message with her words. To her surprise, he's interested... very interested. Over a long walk together, the two find in one another their soul mate and become a "couple." But Daisy is torn between her obsession with the past and her fear of the future; the mark that she feels brands her like an iron. Her Jewish heritage has become a bondage, a memorandum to the past in which she walks the steps of her grandmother through the nightmarish occurrences of a Nazi-occupied Germany. Perhaps she's too serious and deep for Ethan to handle... or perhaps she needs to release the past forever.

I Love You, I Love You Not is an unusual homage to Holocaust survivors. It is also a profoundly strange love story. Many people, myself included, found it a mysterious picture with uncertain ties. What does it mean? What is the message that is being brought to light? That we should release the past and grasp happiness where we can? That there is nothing wrong with being who we are? Maybe it's a message toward shallowness... the shallow pettiness of school children, the shallow reasons why people love one another, our shallow fears in contrast to the depth of our dreams. Who knows?

In any event, be prepared to be enthralled but confused. I could follow the film easily enough... but it had a strange, premature ending and wound like a dream sequence between past and present. Claire Danes as Daisy, Claire Danes as a Young Nana. Is she living her grandmother's past in reality or in her dreams? What is real and what remains illusion? All said and done, the performances are wonderful, although to me Jude Law still looks like a meccha. There's something that screams "plastic" about his hair. It's the first thing I've seen Jeanne Moreau in where she has actual screen time and I've finally come to realize why she's a much-celebrated actress. 

Overall the film doesn't have any major content issues. The relationship between Daisy and Ethan restraints itself to some innocent, flirtatious kisses. The girls do often dress immodestly in short skirts and shorts. There's some mild abuse of deity, a few harsher profanities, and one abuse of "Christ." Flashbacks remember Jews being loaded into trains; some chilling images of the Holocaust are projected in class; Daisy finds a cruel racist message in her locker. Other problems include scenes of teen drinking and smoking, and one almost comical scene between Nana and Daisy that involves the f-word. Yes, it's presented in a cute, innocent way, but when taken more seriously it becomes problematic, since Nana encourages Daisy to be "fearless" and use bad words like the other kids if she feels like it. The f-word is said three times simultaneously, along with "sh_t," and mouthed once later. A strange movie, yes. Brokedown Palace is more worth your time.