Le Pouvoir du chien

Un lent drame domestique dans un environnement automnal froid, où les sentiments sont à peine évoqués mais les tensions entre personnages sont palpables, soutenus par une musique dramatique, parfois même de type thriller. Jane Campion retourne au piano et cette fois-ci évite tous les clichés narratifs qui viennent à l'esprit du spectateur pendant le visionnage. Et avec une étude psychologique prudente des personnages, le film emmène l'histoire vers une forme artistique qui pose plus de questions qu'elle ne donne de réponses. Intéressant, singulier, festivalier. Mais ça m'a laissé froid. Cumberbatch brillant. (09/12/2021)

Humble, beautifully filmed, full of dramatic scenery and subliminal tension, which is, however, quite forcefully injected by Johnny Greenwood's sometimes shallow underscore. Campion's script is unfocused and the plot, divided into fragments, doesn't create coherent dramatic tension, and in the end it kind of depends on the power of chance, and I therefore struggled with the point rather than lived it. The strongest motif is not the son's love for his mother or the misalignment of the two reclusive characters, but rather the relationship between the two brothers, which quietly fades from the plot after about half an hour, much like Jesse Plemons outplaying the rest of the cast. The result is a diet broth of There Will Be Blood and In Fabric. An elegant piece that barks but doesn't bite. (08/12/2021)

Kodi Smit-Mcphee is going to have a hard time from the LGBT community. The Power of the Dog is a really weird family drama set in Montana in 1925, where it seems a key scene is missing, but wait! That’s on purpose. The characters suddenly change their demeanor thanks to something that happens off-camera. Campion simply hints at it and leaves the viewer to do the thinking. So the picture plays through without any sort of catharsis. It all stands on the shoulders of an excellent Cumberbatch who makes the very most of playing the rancher, really enjoying it. (28/10/2021)

A film where the protagonists look at each other in different acting positions and almost all the time, where the music supports the overall tension and a kind of invisible suspense, with the camera taking rolling panoramas of Montana. A lot could happen, but in the end nothing really does. A poorly made film by a director who obviously wanted to replicate the fragility and poetry of Pian, but incorporating it into a gritty western doesn't work. I don’t get the Oscar, I believe it put to sleep more than one viewer. And it almost put me to sleep. (19/04/2022)

Burbank, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a devilishly nasty yet hypnotically appealing performance, is a character that hasn't appeared in a film since perhaps 2007, when There Will Be Blood and the oil-soaked Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, burst into cinemas. The Power of the Dog is a fascinatingly odd film, where you suspect every minute that something terrible is going to happen, and it usually does. Those who want a classic western, or even a modern western, go elsewhere. Those who want a dense, ruthless, ugly and dusty showcase of madness should wait for the right mood and put on Power of the Dog. (05/12/2021)

Dans la première moitié, Power of the Dog présente un jeu psychologique très intéressant et engageant entre les personnages centraux, où l'on attend et souhaite que leurs frustrations mijotent tranquillement en eux pour ensuite exploser violemment à la surface. Mais ce n'est pas le cas, la seconde moitié étant tellement prévisible et peu excitante qu'on en vient presque à regretter le début prometteur. Quoi qu’il en soit, Benedict Cumberbatch m'a convaincu, pour la première fois, qu’il était un grand acteur – peut-être la seule bonne raison pour regarder ce film. Une autre bonne raison serait l’impressionnante BO. (25/12/2021)

“What kind of man would I be if I did not help my mother? If I did not save her?” Jane Campion's latest film certainly can't be denied its visible ambition and its push for film awards. The Power of the Dog has a solid cast in its arsenal and an engaging theme that spans different genres and corners as the plot unfolds. In addition, it features some beautiful locations of plains somewhere in Montana. However, it is quite dragged down by the sometimes too gradual build up of the plot. Campion works skilfully with hints and dead ends in the plot, which is why I found the denouement surprising but not shocking. The way Campion builds tension and relationships between the characters left me feeling uneasy – the interactions of Phil and Peter or Phil and Rose intrigued me, while Phil and George and George and Rose passed me by. Last but not least, I have to criticize the soundtrack, which distracted me throughout the film rather than enhancing the atmosphere. Academically cool, yet cleverly hinted at and genre-defying, it's a contender for several Oscars. (11/01/2022)

Voici que Netflix me surprend positivement pour la deuxième fois, alors que je suis toujours plus enclin à voir ses séries que ses films. Ainsi, après The Lost Daughter, j'ai vu aujourd'hui The Power of the Dog et dans les deux cas, personne ne peut spéculer sur le fait que Netflix avait prévu un déferlement de vues. Les deux films sont très intimistes, psychologiquement soignés et excellents quant à leurs distributions. Si Benedict Cumberbatch ne remporte pas d'Oscar le soir du 27 mars, je considérerai que c'est hautement injuste. Oubliez le Britannique propret et distingué, car ici, il joue un bouvier crasseux, mal lavé, négligé, mais farouchement intelligent et déchiré par une ambivalence intérieure. Une performance phénoménale, par ailleurs parfaitement complétée par le reste du casting. Je n'avais pas vu Kirsten Dunst dans un film depuis longtemps, mais visiblement, elle n'a pas perdu la main ! Un grand moment de cinéma du début à la fin. (13/03/2022)

Initial Impressions: Benedict Cumberbatch proves yet again why he's a stellar actor with an incredible voice, the cinematography was a standout in the film, and it seems time hasn't been too kind to Kirsten Dunst. As for the official plot summary, it caught me off guard; Phil Burbank didn't strike me as cruel. Sure, he had that ability to make your eyes water and your nose hairs curl upon first meeting, capable of being downright unpleasant, but "cruel" might only be seen that way by the generation of snowflakes who start crying over an untied shoelace. The main hiccup of the film? It felt like it was missing a plot. It was an honest two-hour yawn with sporadic moments of brightness. The pacing crawled along, the storyline felt uneventful, and even Benedict Cumberbatch couldn't salvage it; he needed a solid script to work with. / Lesson learned: Sorry, but Phil just wasn't a villain in my eyes. (01/04/2024)

It's one thing to make a movie that's boring as hell whose every second is absolutely mind-numbing and unbearable. But when it’s combined with a totally off-putting soundtrack, a pathetic artsy narrative style, a seemingly profound story, and a terribly shocking punchline, then it becomes true "art". It can win all the film awards in the world, but from my perspective, none of them are going to polish up this turd. (07/03/2022)