Two Lovers and a Bear (2016) (Movie Review)

Two Lovers and a Bear (2016) It seems to me that all films with ‘Two Lovers’ in their titles are failures! I think there are plenty of people who found this film touching. There are also those who must have thought it was a masterpiece. Why would they think that? Simply because it’s not a Hollywood action film? Come on! You’ll have to do better than that to convince me!

No, actually, I found it quite boring, long and slow. But not because it’s not a Hollywood action film. No! Simply because I found it really bad, that’s all! Even the only joke told in the film falls completely flat and almost makes you cry because it’s so bad.

I don’t think Kim Nguyen’s way of looking at things matches mine. I’m really not interested in this director’s filmography, unfortunately.

Dane DeHaan & Tatiana Maslany take us into a film that’s supposed to be very poetic and ultra interesting. Dane DeHaan (there he goes again!), the actor with the incredible dark circles, had already given me plenty of bad films. I didn’t like the charisma of the actors in the Spider-Man reboot with Andrew Garfield. At least compared to Sam Raimi’s trilogy. I didn’t like DeHaan in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, nor in Chronicle (2012), nor in Life After Beth (2014). But that said, special mention for ‘A Cure for Wellness (2016)’, but The Stranger (2020) wasn’t bad at all either.

He’s pretty decent in this film, as is his partner Tatiana Maslany, who is very natural. The latter hasn’t acted in films that interest me either, but she’s apparently also known for her performances in one or more series. The film is set in a village with a population of just 200, in an Arctic zone with lunar moose, where the temperature often drops below minus fifty degrees.

If you’re tempted, you can give it a try! All in all, I unfortunately failed to be moved by this touching film!We learn some pretty tragic facts, particularly about the caribou. You feel the horror of isolation and cold. We also feel the totally tortured side of the couple. But there’s something missing to make the film really gripping.

The original title is ‘Two Lovers and a Bear’. In French, it’s ‘Un ours et deux amants’ (A bear and two lovers). So they reversed it! And in German it’s Rendezvous mit einem Eisbär (Rendezvous with a polar bear), which I think is the more appropriate title.

My Rating