Euphoria is a 2019 drama about two sisters in conflict travelling through Europe toward a mystery destination.
You sometimes hear that a movie is an ‘actor’s film,’ a polite way to say that maybe the whole thing doesn’t quite work story wise but the actors sure make it sing. It’s a phrase often tagged on movies that rely less on obvious action and conventional plotting than experimental pacing and dialogue. That’s where we are in writer and director Lisa Langseth‘s latest feature Euphoria, making it a challenging platform for its two leads, who both prove themselves a wonder to watch, even as the movie itself flitters about in mysterious ways.
Ines (Alicia Vikander) arrives in an unnamed city to meet her estranged older sister Emilie (Eva Green), who has just sold her expensive apartment and claims to have money for a unique vacation. She’s invited Ines to join her. Something is clearly not quite right with Emile, but Ines agrees, and while the two are somewhat off balance with each other – a troubled history nipping at their heels – they soon end up at a quiet forest resort where Marina (Charlotte Rampling) welcomes them. However, Ines soon learns that there is a special purpose to the services provided by the facility, and a more troubling request from Emilie to her sister.
It’s not a spoiler to say what you’ve probably already figured out in going on, but I won’t say it either way. Euphoria deals with an incredibly sensitive subject, one we’ve come up on before in such movies, but it is the way Langseth and her two stars invite us into it that has the heaviest impact. It’s not that you’ll have the rug pulled out from under you, but you may find yourself on unsteady ground, Langseth refusing to cater to a more watered-downed approach.
This is a dramatic and often deeply affecting character study of two very different women with Ines an artist whose recent exhibition met with critical failure, leaving her sort of blank though unwilling to give up. When she gets the chilling news about her sister, she is in a place she can’t understand and forced to confront a past long kept distant between them. Emilie is decided already on her journey, with Marina there to make that the right choice, but Ines remains confused and then drawn into the strange world she’s found herself.
There, she meets others, including Mr. Daren (Charles Dance), who has his own extravagant plans in dealing with what’s befallen him, Dance making an impression of course. There’s also a brief love interest for Emile, played by Mark Stanley, who finds the right emotional notes. However, this is all Vikander and Green, the two absolutely keeping Euphoria above water. To be sure, this is a personal experience, for some maybe even important, but it won’t be for everyone. It’s conversation heavy and stylistically ethereal at times, but it’s also refreshing to see a couple meaty roles for these two actors, the women behind this project giving it some extraordinary depth in places where it needs it most. It skates on some tricky ice at times and steers clear of the usual in just about every way, but does so with enough power between these characters to keep this one to watch.