Gwendoline

Gwendoline wants to be a mix of Barbarella and Indiana Jones, but the result is dull nonsense that is neither adventurous nor erotic, and also lacks exaggeration and, despite a sizable budget, capable actors and artists behind the camera. Just Jaeckin was rather fortunate to release the film Emmanuelle at the right time, as it became a global sensation, though it definitely did not possess any outstanding directorial qualities. In Gwendoline, this is brought to mind by the futile action scenes. Taken as a whole, unfortunately, the film is not dumb enough to be funny, but only tiresome, sterile and, furthermore, offensive in its antediluvian treatment of gender. Today, Gwendoline can serve only as a complementary work to the new version of Tomb Raider. Both pictures have essentially identical storylines in which a young woman sets out on the trail of her lost father to an exotic land, where she half coerces cooperation from a local hunk, who eventually becomes her ally. However, in filling out the details and the conceptualisation of the characters, the two films could not be farther apart. While the action-adventure Tomb Raider with the wonderfully charismatic and physically fit Alicia Vikander and the truly masculine Daniel Wu stands completely outside of gender and racial formulas, Gwendoline is a dullchick flickbased on formulas and prejudices to such an extent that it contains nothing more than that. (09/07/2018)