I think it's beautiful when creators explain more in shadows and silences than in dialogue and obvious visual cues. There is true brilliance to be found in the hidden and the unsaid; oftentimes, the truth comes in subtle ripples than in galvanized waves, and it's exceptional to come across true masters of the craft who are willing to respectfully handle such an intricate technique without becoming dull and overbearing.

Regrettably, such is not the case here.

Dolan tries to sweep us off our feet with anthropocentric framing and a flowing stream of ethereal brushings of color and emotion, something he does well, I can't deny him that. In the meanwhile though, he seems to be neglecting the actual plot which is painfully lacking on so many points, this movie is rendered into nothing more than a neophyte's attempt at a college- level, arthousy project.

Fortunate that the entirety of the cast is strong enough to redeem this effort by generously depositing spiritful performances, thankfully seeming to overcome the dire facts that the writing is listless, the plot is dormant, and the whole movie seems painfully mannered and conditional. So much so, that the viewer is bound to be left confused and, at times, attacked by the drip-fed, self-folding, monotonous interactions that ultimately serve to dress the movie with no pragmatic value at all.

In aiming for elegance and allure, Dolan fails to dish out a well-founded, coherent film, leaving us with nothing more than an unprogressive fable that tiptoes along the verge of deforming from 'suspended' to 'backwards'. And all very chaotically wrapped in out-of-place musical choices, not enhancing but rather debasing the scenes, pulling the viewer out of the experience in flabbergasted eye-rolls.

My point of view: Overlooking the feeble dialogue, overall repetitiveness, plot stagnancy and forced emotive filming techniques, I rather enjoyed the performances -- and here is where I rate this. It's Only The End of the World is a lifeless attempt, devoid of any true passion and it could have very easily broken down into oblivion the moment the end titles started rolling - if it weren't for Vincent Cassel's very last scene which, yet again, validates him as one of the Greats.

Lucky for me I will always have that to remember.

b.r.i.l.l.i.a.n.t! I saw this movie at TIFF on Sept. 17 and it was the first Dolan film I've seen. It deserves the award it received at Cannes! Despite all the shouting and intensity, this film conveys with subtlety, suggestive dialogue and glances, the range of emotions felt by different members of a family when there has been an unexplained loss of another family member. Even though the main character, Louis, is still alive and returns to the family, they react as if he has returned from an unexpected death. They range from guilt, rage, idealization, and denial.The close-up filming style also reveals each family member's pain in intimate detail. Dolan is brilliant in his interpretation of that family's deep pain and Louis's coming to terms with not only his own impending death but the "death" the family already has had to deal with when he went away the first time.

How can a film with Marion Cottillard, Vincent Cassel, and Léa Seydoux be so nail-gratingly annoying?

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh. I wanted to scream. And not in a good way. Gaspard Ulliel plays Louis, a successful write who returns home after 12 years offing away with almost no communication, to tell his family that he has a terminal illness. The film is about how his absence, and the family's imagining of him, has affected all of their lives. What it amounts to is an hour and a half of angst and bitterness, whining and hesitation. Ugh.

Louis' older brother (Cassel) refusing to feel any joy lest his anger dissipate. His younger sister (Seydoux) has imagined a dream version of Louis she both idolises and resents. His sister-in-law (Cotillard) is the most sympathetic but even she is mistrustful of Louis' return. Rounding out the cast is Nathalie Baye as the family matriarch who turns to Louis to cure the curdled bonds within the family.

What grates is the lack of insight into what it was that has caused Louis to leave for so long. The brief flash-back glimpses we get of his pre-leaving-home life seem happy enough, and the horror-show that is his family now has been caused by his absence. There's something to be explored here about what we owe our family, about the balance we have to strike between honouring the familial bonds, and look gin after ourselves, about needing to get away from toxic situations even if you love the people you leave behind, but the film is not interested in any of that - it wants only to wallow in how horrific the homecoming is. We learn nothing of why Louis is so desperate to stay away; so desperate in fact that he has done nothing more than send postcards with 2 or 3 words on them for years, so desperate that he does not want his mother to know his address. We can throw out guesses; his homosexuality? His artistic temperament? But the film won't so much as glance in that direction. Home is toxic; that's all it wants you to know.

The main character is so blank as to be without a character. He is silent for much of the film. Many scenes are shot largely in close-up, rendering everything claustrophobic, but Louis does no more than look sick, and give a wan smile. An early exchange of looks between Cotillard and Ulliel gave me hope there was some understanding between them that would yield some insight or drama, but nothing.

Cassel is asked only to be angry throughout. Seydoux only anxious. Cottilard only nervous. Baye, at least, is asked to do a little more; but even she seems to see her son only as a way to fix her other 2 children.

Perhaps there is something to be gleaned here for those whose home life is truly toxic, perhaps this functions as a sort of acknowledgement that sometimes you shouldn't go home again, but for me, this was a grind.

This was the first film I have seen written and directed by Xavier Dolan. I would never write anyone off (there's always hope!), but it may be some time before I venture into Dolan's house again.