Critical Defense: “Mehdi and Sarah and Adrien and Manu, Coupling Under a Cloud”

In his review of the film “Witnesses” directed by André Téchiné, Stephen Holden does a good job of contextualizing the film and depicting the director’s style, but gives an excess of plot summary, while providing too little description of the actual film.

Holden’s portrayal of Téchiné’s approach is witty and seems to be well-informed. He uses active imagery and adjectives, describing Téchiné’s films as being “casually sensual” and filled with “fluid sexuality.” According to Holden, the world he creates is “a liberated wonderland with few boundaries.”

Two paragraphs later, Holden begins to actually talk about “Witnesses.” He then spends over half of the review summarizing the plot. Though this less than brief synopsis certainly represents the complexity of the film’s characters, it seems that this lengthy portion might kill the readers’ interest before getting to the actual review.

If his readers manage to get through this tedious summary, Holden also disappoints in his description of the film. The adjectives he uses are bland and lacking in detail. He writes that the film is “beautifully acted” and moves “with the pace of a light romantic comedy,” but then fails to describe how. It isn’t until the last paragraph that his writing becomes passionate and interesting, as he writes, “In its light-handed way, ‘The Witnesses’ is profound.”