Hotel Harabati review

Feature-length navel-gazer? Social commentary? Hallucinogenic mystery? Good luck trying to pin down – or decipher – this curious French melange. Marion (Hélène Fillières) has always been a bit “out of it”, but when she encourages husband Philippe (Laurent Lucas) to pilfer a bag from the train station she sets off a chain reaction of events that could spell the end of their marriage. To top it off, she and Philippe are about to embark on a trip to Venice – but do they actually go, or is it all a figment of Marion’s imagination? Layering on more subplots and subtexts than it really knows what to do with, Hotel Harabati fails to gel its intriguing, teasing parts into a satisfying whole. Interesting but frustrating to watch, Brice Cauvin’s feature debut never quite finds its voice.