The Wait movie review & film summary (2016)

He could have chosen no better actress to further fulfill this mission than Binoche, who proved herself to be masterful at expressing the nuances of grief early in her career in 1993’s “Three Colors: Blue,” and more recently in “Clouds of Sils Maria.” A mere glance or facial twitch conveys more than any outburst of dialogue could, especially when Anna re-enters Giuseppe’s bedroom for the first time since his demise. De Laâge doesn’t come close to the emoting skills that Binoche possesses, but she has that special look, one that summons a more lissome version of Bridgette Bardot, along with youthful fearlessness on her side.

Clearly restless while awaiting Giuseppe’s never-to-be arrival, Jeanne is taken by Anna to a placid lake where the younger woman quickly strips down to her undies and jumps in. Anna, however, declines, saying, “I’m used to seeing some parts of my body only in the dark.” Soon after, she is shown desperately cradling a pink pool float that was previously abandoned in the courtyard. Anna blows air into it, as if attempting to resuscitate her son. What might have seemed faintly ridiculous in another film is profoundly moving here.

The two ladies fall into a kind of languid routine. They sweat side by side in a Turkish bath, Anna cooks Jeanne food, they visit a museum and, most importantly, they share remembrances of Giuseppe. Jeanne suggests there was some friction between them the previous summer, which might be why she fails piece together the increasingly obvious truth in front of her.

Once Jeanne invites two young men she happens upon to dinner, she and Anna start to form a more benign though similarly vicarious connection as the one between Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sangier in gloriously twisty “Swimming Pool.” Wine is consumed, the sounds of female laughter fill the air, delicious homemade pasta is consumed and seductive slow-dancing is performed to Leonard Cohen’s “Waiting for a Miracle.” Life, for a moment, goes on. But instead of a miracle, Anna is confronted by her loyal yet disapproving elderly servant Pietro, who suggests she should drop the ruse.

To fully appreciate “The Wait,” one should not expect grand revelations or even full knowledge of how exactly Giuseppe succumbed. Instead, one must simply immerse themselves as fully as Jeanne does in the lake’s waters and embrace the experience. What Messina lacks in substance in his storytelling, he mostly makes up with raw feelings. We come to care through our own powers of observation, and that might be enough.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46tn55lp5a2tXmRaWhv