It is not easy to like a Michael Haneke movie. In fact, even his best works require the viewers to go through some amount of mental torture to truly appreciate the director’s art. His latest film, Amour, seems to be an exercise in futility. Whether this is intentional or not on the part of Haneke, we will never know. Amour is quite simply about an old couple, where the woman is sick (her right-side is paralysed) and the man looks after his wife while her health steadily deteriorates. Supposedly, the movie explores tender and honest love at their advanced age. But, within the context of the film, all we see is the man caring for the woman, going about it with a business-as-usual attitude. Don’t get me wrong, this is still love, but the movie does not *explore* this love, rather just documents what any old couple would be like given the circumstances. Thrown in for shock value are two *gasp* scenes that have no business being in the movie — one turns out to be a dream (aiming for rookie points), the other is an apathetic gimmick. For a film-maker like Haneke to make a movie like Amour is but an abuse of his position.
Rating: 
