Grand Central

There is a simple enough metaphor running through the heart of this alternately frustrating and picturesque film. It is that love and passion is a nuclear reaction. It can also be a sickness, inspired by this most fear inducing of energy sources. Unfortunately this sickness, while inducing plenty of painful paranoia does not inspire much in the way of imaginative inspiration… Focusing on the unskilled Gary (Tahar Rahim, star of A Prophet, 2009) as he attempts to find a job at a nuclear plant in the Rhone valley, the film can be seen as something of a tale of abuse. Subjecting the young man…

I'm usually a fan of a bit of Tahar Rahim but there's not really so much going on in this romantic drama. It's setting is novel - it's not often that you find a nuclear power station as the location for a love story. That's where he ends up working, doing some of the constant de-contamination work at the site. Dressed, top-to-toe, in white protective gear when he is not showering or scrubbing his body, he befriends his boss "Toni" (Denis Ménochet) and meets his girlfriend "Karole" (Léa Seydoux). Things all now take a rather predicable turn as they embark on an affair hoping that neither…