THE SEARCH (Michel Hazanavicius). 135 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (March 13) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
After winning the Oscar for his glorified trinket The Artist, writer/director Michel Hazanavicius wields his newfound fame to throw a spotlight on human rights horrors in The Search. His well-intentioned children-in-peril story, set during the second Chechen war, is periodically moving but unwieldy and heavy-handed.
Hazanavicius’s wife and muse, Bérénice Bejo, plays Carole, a French NGO rep investigating the humanitarian crisis in Chechnya hoping to find a way for the world to pay attention.
She happens upon and takes in nine-year-old Hadji (Abdul-Khalim Mamatsuiev), an orphan who, in the film’s shocking prologue, witnesses his parents’ slaughter by Russian soldiers. Hadji remains traumatized and mute, yet the silent, intimate moments he shares with Bejo’s Carole are some of the film’s most effective the child, communicating with his eyes, would have been right at home in The Artist.
Carole’s work with other survivors is less convincing or simply lumbering, as is the film’s splintered structure, which attempts a grand scope by following other characters.
Among them is Kolia (Maxim Emelianov), a Russian teen busted for pot and drafted into the army where he endures dehumanizing abuse. He is the film’s most intriguing character, thanks in large part to Emelianov’s stirring performance. But he’s integrated into the larger story in a ham-fisted, didactic way, and his connection is revealed in an M. Night Shyamalan moment that’s way too obvious to be taken seriously.
