On Body and Soul

CinemaSerfAug 2024

3.5

There's a tiny bit of aw, it's "Bambi" at the start of this film as a great stag and a much smaller doe are seen meandering through the wintery forest looking for some nice juicy leaves. Next thing, we are in an Hungarian abattoir where finance director "Endre" (Géza Morcsányi) has just been informed that they have a new independent product inspector, "Mária" (Alexandra Borbély) who appears a little stand-offish with her colleagues - and keeps downgrading the meat. He decides to try and befriend her, and that's when the story becomes a little more interesting. Meantime, there's a robbery at the factory and the police ask the company to engage in some psychological profiling. Remember the deer? Well it appears that both he and she have been simultaneously having that same dream. That's no mean coincidence and as the couple start to bond they find that it's not just their illusions that they have in common, but with both coming with considerable amounts of personal baggage it's not going to be a straightforward relationship. What makes this film a bit different is the unconventional nature of the characters. He's in his mid-forties, a bit emotionally reserved and has a withered arm. She (don't you think she resembles Saoirse Ronan a little?) is almost childlike at times and is seen reliving some of the tensions of her life using kid's toys. Now this isn't exactly a pacy affair, but auteur Ildikó Enyedi takes this two hours to develop two characterful personalities that defy the usual cinema norms of beauty and attraction and yet are still engaging to watch and appreciate. There's a little light relief from the cynical HR boss (Zoltán Schneider) the psychologist (Réka Tenki) serves a series of functions - some less professional the others - as the couple fight to overcome their respective ineptitudes. The workplace scenes are not exactly graphic, but it's still not really a film for the squeamish. Glamorous it isn't, but it does have a degree of realism to it and it's worth a watch.