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That’s pretty much where the intrigue ends. Where the plot mentioned something about two identical women, completely unrelated (one lives in France, the other in Poland), born at the same time and both gifted with unmatchable singing voices. One was supposed to see the other in a brochure, and search for her double in another country. That synopsis as as totally misleading as it is wrong. The women, Veronika and Veronique are both played by Irene Jacob. As the movie starts, we know little about them, and it stays quite the same. Veronique goes to Poland for vacation, and at one point the two women occupy the same place at the same time (and of course, without realizing it, the one takes a picture of the other only to be discovered near the end). But that’s the only time. Shortly thereafter, Veronika dies at a singing recital. Blam! like that, she’s gone, and we’re at the under 30-minute mark.

This offsets Veronique, who feels a piece of her has died, to go back. She really doesn’t search for anything --she’s just there. Veronique doesn’t learn anything about her or even realize Veronika’s existence until the end; she just flounders on, mourning nothing. An inexplicable advancement involves a puppeteer stalking Veronique (which has no significance or revelation by the end, except for his motive which is only minutely touched upon), and Veronique promising to purge herself in court, saying that a lady’s husband (never mind who this lady is) slept with her 13 times. The dead-end occurrences stay continuous, just as when the husband is smoking on her doorstep out of nowhere.

The Double Life of Veronique tries to be something it is not; it wants to be mysterious, yet there is no mystery. It wants to be psychologically logical, but it ends up being ineptly illogical. The premise sounded, or at least read to be interesting, but the movie fails to build. After a while, its promise wore out and it seemed stranded in development --or lack thereof. One feels the sense that there should have been something more, but nothing plot-wise was gained. In fact, the movie often succeeds into dropping in stretches of tedium and boredom. Krzysztof Kieslowski, of the Blue, White, and Red trilogy, emanates no sense of direction in his narrative. There is nothing compelling in his characters beyond the initial interest. Kieslowski’s slow pacing mixed with an ugly color scheme and nothing above average in the technical department, viewers quickly despondent for any difference in the movie’s duration. The red and green cinematography by Slawomir Idziak are distracting, out of place, and obscure the entirety of the image. After just a brief duration, it becomes annoying and unbalanced.

Irene Jacob, for what minimal material she’s given, handles it with grace, libidinousness, and she is quite able of antiquating herself to the camera --clothed or not. Jacob is no doubt a beauty of the screen, but what skin she shows is not enough to sustain a hypnotic interest into the story, and she looks additionally uncomfortable during her love scenes. Jacob looks equally as lost as far as figuring out the being of her character. All the other cast members were made out to be uninteresting and third string. Given, the movie is about Veronique/Veronika, but supporting characters are integral, and lack here.

Kieslowski shares the writing credit with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, and the script itself is mostly where the trouble resides. Veronique was done no justice, and the state of its undevelopment led to a state of limbo. Not only difficult for the viewers to stay content, but the actors as well looked stuck in the convolution of the screenplay. Veronique needs no double life, at least not until she can handle her first.

Final Verdict: D-.

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originally posted: 06/02/00 00:24:44
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