A missing-child case morphs into a commune-from-hell investigation in this out-of-competition Cannes entry, the last film made by Canet and Cotillard as a couple.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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Courtesy of Pathé What goes around mostly just goes around, goes around, and goes around once more in “Karma,” a sometimes engrossing but indulgently drawn-out affair given the veneer of luxury trash by all-in performances from Marion Cotillard and Dénis Menochet. Directed by Guillaume Canet with the same compulsive genre gloss he brought to the international hit “Tell No One” a full 20 years ago, this fusion of solemn psychological thriller and ripely ludicrous melodrama boasts a lurid, grabby premise — opening on the puzzling case of a child’s disappearance in Spain that eventually leads across the border to a cultishly secretive, definitely incestuous commune in southwest France. The storytelling, however, is padded and repetitive, meaning this 149-minute movie never quite takes escapist flight, while also remaining hard to take altogether seriously.
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