REVIEW: Coco Before Chanel

Plot summary for Coco Before Chanel from IMDb.com:

Several years after leaving the orphanage to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle Chanel finds herself working in a provincial bar both. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Baron Balsan gives her an entree into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing increasingly popular hats. When she falls in love with English businessman Arthur Capel further opportunities open up, though life becomes ever more complicated.

The biopic is a genre that has been mined in Hollywood since the beginning of cinema. From silent films like the Passion of Joan of Arc to Yankee Doodle Dandy to modern films like Capote and Milk, famous lives are always good candidates for screen time.

Recently we saw the French film Coco Before Chanel, chronicling the life of the famous fashion entrepreneur Coco Chanel. Now, most biopics follow a standard pattern: a difficult childhood, unexpected fame and fortune, descent into some sort of vice, followed by a glorious comeback. Thankfully, Coco Before Chanel didn't follow this pattern explicitly, almost the entirety of the movie is spent in the development of her character and confidence. Her actual success in fashion is barely shown, really only occupying the last few minutes of the film. While this was a nice change from the typical formula, Coco Before Chanel didn't especially break any exciting new ground in the realm of the biopic. One of the only things that really drew my interest was a lack of any sort of knowledge of Coco Chanel's life. She was a very interesting character with many complex relationships.

While Audrey Tautou and crew all did a nice job in this film, one major fault was the character of Coco wasn't very convincing. Throughout the movie characters referred to Coco as charming, exciting, and entertaining, but all we ever saw of Coco was Audrey Tautou moping in the corner smoking a cigarette. I often found myself confused at references to her as an "exciting companion" Also, the entire movie underplays her knack for design so well, that when she actually does become known for this (only the last bit of the film), I was a bit unprepared. Other than one brief love affair, the film only gives a skin deep examination of the character. It would've been nice to see it go a bit deeper, find the origins of her antagonistic design sense. And at times the film did seem a bit overlong, with Coco spending enormous amounts of time sitting around her friend's mansion. Definitely could have used a bit more trimming in the editing room.

Kinsey: 3/5 stars
Wade: 3/5 stars