'Suddenly' (2024), starring Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Thierry, is an adaptation from the novel Soudain, seuls by French author and sailor Isabelle Autissier. Photo: Supplied / Taramount Film / Studio Canal
An ingenious script and the skill and charm of its leads, makes French film Suddenly about a couple stranded on a remote island, gripping viewing, writes Simon Morris.
Called in New Zealand Suddenly for some reason - the original title Soudain Seuls, 'Suddenly Alone' makes more sense - this French castaway thriller is based on a best-selling novel.
Directed by Thomas Bidegain - better known as a writer for award-winning films like A Prophet and Rust and Bone - it stars Gilles Lellouche and Mélanie Thierry as a married couple of adventurers sailing round the world.
I say "adventurers" plural. Laura is clearly not quite as convinced by a life on the ocean waves as Ben.
But she goes with it when he decides to make a side trip to a remote island just south of Chile and just north of Antarctic icebergs.
But no sooner have they taken their dinghy to the island when an unexpected storm suddenly hits them. With no way to get back to their yacht, they take shelter at a deserted whaling station.
But when the storm passes, their yacht is no longer there. They're stranded and alone.
We've heard this story before of course - from fact-based castaways like Robinson Crusoe and real-life explorers Scott and Shackleton.
What's different with Suddenly is they're a couple - with all the added dynamics that brings to a story. And also, it's fiction.
For all the well-known motto "truth is often stranger than fiction", "strange" doesn't necessarily mean a good story.
If you want a narrative that makes sense, that goes in unexpected directions but comes back to a satisfying ending, fiction is often the way to go.
Ben and Laura's initial hope - that people will miss them and retrace their steps looking for them - proves over-optimistic. And on an island at the edge of the world, food is now the first consideration, and they can't afford to be sentimental about it.
Tempers fray, long-submerged home truths flare up. Did they ever even know each other?
And when reason prevails, they discover making up brings with it repercussions that never came up between Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday, if you catch my drift.
As winter approaches, getting out now becomes a priority.
I know, it sounds bleak and gruelling - two people stuck on an island with no way off.
That it's not is partly down to the ingenious script and the skill and charm of Thierry and Lellouche.
But writer/director Bidegain is the film's secret sauce, as Suddenly effortlessly swings between action to drama to tragedy - even close to romantic comedy at times.
For all the harrowing locale, it was all about the characters from start to finish. Stunning.