Amour was Michael Haneke's attempt to document old age. And the route he has chosen to do so was by tracking the lives of an old couple living together by themselves. What if one of them falls terribly ill? How would the other person react or take care of the sick one? What are the implications they would face due to this turmoil? And how far can they go before meeting the eventual outcome that is death?
The film opened up with a tragedy. An incident had happened in a house. Bad smell was all over the place. Police and firemen broke in and found an elderly woman dead on bed. With our curiosity and attention on gun point, the story began to unravel from the past. Everything was well in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Laurent. One day, the wife suffered from stroke, leading to a wrongly performed surgery that caused the right side of her body to be paralysed. From then on to the last half hour of the film, we see this couple adjusting, coping and adapting to this new lifestyle.
Even though the overall situation does get progressively worse, for many, the ongoing sequences of caretaking may seem mundane, repetitive and directionless. And that's the exact purpose of Michael Haneke's script. It puts you in the headspace of the protagonist who's at the verge of giving up. When the moment came to where he smothered the wife to finally end her sufferings, it completely threw us off guard with the immense shock! It's alike experiencing a Tsunami after flowing through a smooth river for a long time.
Shout out to both the lead actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva! Such realistic performances! These two were like actual couple and not one doubt rose when we were living with them for the entire duration! The latter's facial reactions alone could tell you how embarrassed she was of her condition, and when everyday living has turned into immense struggle, you would want to end your life just like she thought of too. The former played a down-to-earth husband character who was walking on a thin line of fulfilling his spouse's promise by not admitting her into a hospital and looking after her the best that he could! Bad dream plus glancing through photo album realizing how long and far life has come were scenes well done!
One thing is for sure. Amour has a heart. A pure, genuine heart. Of love and responsibility. We can't even point out a flaw with the film because of that. It'll linger in viewers' minds for quite some time after watching, exactly for that reason too.