Watch Réparer Les Vivants with English subtitles on Thursday December 1 2016
Persuasive sci-fi tech talk, soulful romance and an earnest stab at metaphysics combine in American director Mike Cahill's polished second feature (after 2011's similarly themed 'Another Earth'). Perhaps the film's first major achievement, though, is turning Michael Pitt ('Last Days') into a believably brilliant medical student with a thing for eyes. Molecular biologist Ian (Pitt) likes to take digital photos of dilating pupils. When he meets foxy Sofi (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) at a New York costume party, her red-flecked irises turn him on and he can't help but ask for a snap. Their affair begins in earnest, while Ian's workaholic lab assistant, Karen (Brit Marling), does the drudge work. It's a mark of Cahill's improving command of pace that his first hour feels comparable to David Cronenberg's flirty, ominous remake of 'The Fly', with a killer turning point involving a massive research breakthrough and a tragedy on the same day as Ian and Sofi's wedding.
In cinemas September 24. Read our review here.
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