MOBIUS (2013)

Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Eric Rochant  
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Cécile De France, Tim Roth, Émilie Dequenne, John Lynch, Maksim Vitorgan, Brad Leland, Branka Katic
RunTime: 1 hr 49 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/mobiuslefilm

Opening Day: 16 January 2014

Synopsis: Grégory Lioubov, alias Moïse, is a Russian intelligence officer stationed in Monaco to observe the activities of a powerful businessman. Alice, a financial whiz, is recruited to serve as an undercover operative on the same mission. Suspicious that Alice may betray them, Grégory breaks the golden rule and contacts her. A forbidden passion erupts between them that will inevitably precipitate their downfall.

Movie Review:

We think one reason why the Luc Besson’s Europacorp-produced ‘Mobius’ hasn’t gotten much love from critics is the expectation that it is some spy thriller in the vein of ‘Mission Impossible’ or ‘The Bourne Identity’; that, we can definitively say, it is not, despite boasting slick location filming in Monaco which could easily pass off as one of them Hollywood spy movies. Instead, Gallic helmer Eric Rochant uses the backdrop of a present-day post-financial crisis world to spin a gripping tale of forbidden love between a spy and his undercover charge.

The former is Gregory Lioubov (Jean Dujardin), a Russian secret agent whose latest mission brings him to Monaco to collect dirt on a Russian businessman named Ivan Rostovsky (Tim Roth). To do so, his team recruits the female financial analyst Alice Redmond (Cecile De France), whose intelligence and good looks immediately catches Rostovsky’s eye when he pops into her firm one day for business. Gregory is equally smitten by Alice, except in his case, the attraction is mutual - and yet her undercover status means that he has to hide his true identity from her as well as from his own fellow team members.

Such romances depend very much on the chemistry of its key players, and Dujardin and De France are just magnetic together. Rochant doesn’t so much as tell the romance as let his actors play it out, so those looking for some form of rational explanation why the pair are drawn to each other will probably be frustrated. Yet in their littlest gestures - an exchange of glances, a gentle smile on the lips, their body language - Dujardin and De France leave you with no doubt how attracted their characters are to one another, even more so during their lovemaking in which we are told De France’s character Alice reaches orgasm twice in the first session.

A particularly well staged sequence has Gregory and Alice engage in a handsomely disguised phone conversation while the former is in a car with three fellow agents tracking the latter outside a hotel in Moscow. Dujardin nails the part of the professional who finds himself going against every rule of the book in his dangerous line of work for a lady with whom he cannot deny an intense and perhaps even inexplicable connection with. He and De France complement each other perfectly, their attraction never less than palpable and heartfelt - which only makes their final denouement even more heartbreaking.

Once you perceive it as a romance first and a thriller second, you’ll be more forgiving towards Rochant’s clunkily plotted espionage story. Besides Russia’s FSB, it appears that Alice may also be simultaneously working for the CIA, as depicted in some stiltedly-scripted scenes filled by TV actors Wendell Pierce, John Lynch and Brad Leland. And then it seems Gregory may also be a double agent spying on the FSB for the CIA, but by that time, the overly complicated intrigue just ends up spinning itself into a knot. The explained reference to the titular strip also adds little to the state of affairs, and like Dujardin’s character in the movie, only leaves one with a look of confusion.

Yet while it may come off at the start as a thriller set in the financial world like ‘Arbitrage’, this is really more an old-school spy romance set against a backdrop that doesn’t always necessarily make the most sense. Even so, there’s no denying that there is something mesmerising in the powerful and passionate connection between Dujardin and De France’s characters, one made even more compelling by the bittersweet finale. Put aside your expectations of it as an espionage thriller and think of it as a tragic love story, you’ll find ‘Mobius’ quite the stylish and sexy affair that's unexpectedly moving.

Movie Rating:

(Less a thriller than a tragic romance, the espionage-driven ‘Mobius’ boasts strong chemistry between its lead stars Jean Dujardin and Cecile De France)

Review by Gabriel Chong