Blue is the Warmest Color - Review

After a chance encounter with an artist with blue hair, Adele begins a multiple year journey to learn how to discover herself, her needs, and her wants as an adult in Blue is the Warmest Color.



I went into this movie fully knowing what to expect because of the reputation it gained after Cannes. It was both praised and criticized for it's NC-17, graphic portrayal of a same-sex relationship involving a confused, underage girl. There was also a lot of complaining after it failed to receive a Best Foreign Film nomination at the Academy Awards. After seeing it for myself, I wouldn't say it's the masterpiece people made it out to be. 

The way I see it... this would have been a decent movie if it was about 90min shorter and wasn't full of the random, graphic sex scenes. I feel like the scenes were there primarily for shock value as they didn't really hold any relevance to the plot and had absolutely no reason to be that graphic. As a result it took away from the plot. If I wanted to see something like that I could go to a porn website and see the exact same thing.
The length was an issue primarily because a majority of the film was filler. By the time the main character Adele even meets Emma, the girl with blue hair, I was bored and had been wondering what the past 45min had to do with the plot. Even after she enters a relationship with Emma, I felt there were a lot of scenes that did not have to be there or ran too long. Watching Adele teach a kindergarten class for 10min is a perfect example. We get it, she became a teacher. Watching her teach has no importance to her relationship with Emma. It didn't need to be there. It was almost like each hour was an act and I mean it when I say it could have been cut in half and been as effective.

The bright spot by far was the performance by Adele Exarchopoulos. She truly was fantastic, but I think she was overshadowed by overall poor execution and poor, underdeveloped supporting characters. Reading a synopsis of the movie gives you more than the actual film does.
I am glad the Academy excluded this movie because it didn't deserve to be there. Bottom line. I would have been happy if Exarchopoulos received a nomination for her work, but it would have justified the critics praise that I honestly feel is undeserved.

Sorry to say it, but this was another average lovers quarrel that ran too long and had unnecessarily raunchy sex scenes. Nothing special.