Garance review Adele Exarchopoulos gives it her all in ripe but flimsy portrait of alcohol addiction

"Exarchopoulos has her moments in this film from Jeanne Herry, in which she plays an actor struggling with a drinking problem. The scenes in which we see her up on stage, boisterously performing in a touring theatre for schoolkids, are genuinely great. But really this is a very glib and unsatisfying drama, whose essential naivety becomes apparent when the lead character is forced to confront the crisis in her life."

"At the moment, she has an assistant stage manager position in a prestigious Paris repertory company, believing herself to be on the verge of getting some serious speaking parts when the next season's casting is announced. But she is instead relegated to the touring schools company, where her undoubted talents are compromised by partying extremely hard every night and waking up with a terrible hangover every morning."

"Garance is one of those people who show up chaotically late to meetings with a drama-queen swirl of excuses about late buses and trains. With an awful inevitability, she is fired from the theatre troupe, a sacking which is made worse by being executed collectively with a stern injunction to get help, like an intervention."

"She forms a new relationship with a set designer, Pauline (Sara Giraudeau) but this is also placed under pressure by her drinking and she begins to suffer anxiety attacks and depression. To make things worse, her pregnant sister, who is there to be the unimpressed voice of common sense, gets cancer a contrived health crisis that exists to facilitate Garance's own path to mat"

A young actor, Garance, works in a prestigious Paris repertory company and hopes for speaking roles. She is instead assigned to a touring schools theatre, where heavy partying leads to hangovers, missed meetings, and chaotic behavior. She is fired in a collective, intervention-like sacking and begins a relationship with a set designer, Pauline, while her drinking worsens. Anxiety attacks and depression follow, and her pregnant sister becomes a voice of common sense. A cancer diagnosis for the sister functions as a convenient crisis that pushes Garance’s personal journey forward, making the overall drama feel naive and unsatisfying.

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