Along with his lambent blue eyes and perennially wounded expression, Aidan is clearly too delicate for this world. As he and Carmen make their technique to Los Angeles, Millepied finds each alternative he can — whether or not it is smart or not — to have somebody, normally Barrera, escape in a sinuously expressive dance quantity. (Maybe in tribute to Carlos Saura’s attractive 1983 adaptation, this “Carmen” opens with a riveting flamenco, carried out by Marina Tamayo, that turns right into a wordless showdown with a drug runner.) Millepied’s “Carmen” isn’t an opera, precisely, however neither is it a musical: Though the filmmaker indulges the identical heightened feelings and unsubtle staging because the classics of these varieties, he by no means strikes a convincing steadiness between of-the-moment naturalism and outsize expression.
The result’s that “Carmen” usually feels aimless, its draggy, unfocused vitality underscored by a marked lack of real chemistry between the 2 enticing stars. Issues perk up significantly when Almodóvar rep participant Rossy De Palma arrives on the scene as a nightclub owner-performer who was a good friend of Carmen’s late mom. If her dancing is usually awkward, De Palma injects much-needed campy humor into in any other case drearily self-serious proceedings.
One of many chief attracts of “Carmen” isn’t simply the dancing — which is sometimes dazzling however extra usually underwhelming — however a rating written by the nice Nicholas Britell, most well-known for his good “Succession” theme and his collaboration with Barry Jenkins. Though there are sonic glimpses of Britell’s signature ostinato right here, they’re too usually drowned out by choirs that are supposed to be heavenly however simply sound pretentious and grandiose.
Overwrought and overthought, this “Carmen” by some means winds up being underbaked, as Millepied throws numerous concepts on the display, with valuable few taking maintain with any conviction. “Ay yi yi,” De Palma’s character moans sorrowfully at one level. We all know how she feels.
R. At space theaters. Accommodates sturdy language, some violence and nudity. 116 minutes.