Passages (2023)

Romantic movies are about falling in love, the beginning of relationships, and as the credit roll we are given the "happily ever after" message. Because that's how we like to think about love and relationships. But life isn't often like that. Even long lasting relationships have their challenges and journeys. Passages is not that film. It is about the ends of relationships. How there isn't just a moment where love stops. Where the choices we make impact what happens next. How difficult it can be to let go even when it is for the best. 

We join Rogowski and Whishaw as their long term relationship comes to and end, and we watch the way they negotiate through that period with all the stops and starts that come along with the ending of something meaningful. We watch their fumblings through recouplings. They each connect with others, reconnect, and are pulled emotionally in different directions. Passages feels honest in its depiction of all the turmoil of love ending. It very effectively (and again honestly) uses explicit sex scenes to both advance the story and depict the relationships, the feelings between the characters, as well as the gulfs between them. 

I did struggle a bit with the film's ability to be interpreted as a condemnation of bisexuality. I don't think that's what Sachs is saying with the piece but the film doesn't give a lot of footing to dispute it. Rogowski appears to be the only sexually fluid character and he is grilled somewhat fairly by others over his commitment issues. I wish Passages had found a way to tell this story without that element being left unsaid. 

Rogowski's performance helps with this somewhat.  He manages to make his character pathetic and sympathetic at the same time. His character is the most complex in the film and the most problematic. He grounds such a difficult character by making him richly complicated and undeniably compelling. 

 

And in the end Passages may be one of the best illustrations I've seen in film of the end of love. It is filled with a sadness, a mourning for the loss of that connection, and honest depictions of all that comes with it. As it comes to a close it leaves us something to sit with about the difficulties of maintaining the loves we want and cannot handle. 

Passages

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Erwan Kepoa Falé

Director: Ira Sachs

Writers: Mauricio Zacharias, Ira Sachs