In Jeanne Herry’s Another Day, Adèle Exarchopoulos embodied Garance, a working actress whose drinking shadows her career. Herry, known for intimate, character-driven ensembles like All Your Faces and In Safe Hands, favors mood and emotional truth over a tight procedural plot.
Exarchopoulos anchors the film with a fearless, precise performance that swings between wit and vulnerability. The movie often reads as a series of observations about a life on the edge, more documentary than conventional drama, yet it never fails to feel earned thanks to her presence.
Garance pursues parts in experimental theater while the bottle keeps intruding on rehearsals and relationships. Her dynamic with Pauline, a steady, down-to-earth scenographer played by Sara Giraudeau, provides a welcome counterpoint to the party chaos. The romance unfolds through a long COVID lockdown and a string of late nights that threaten to derail everything she cares about.
The narrative threads in a parallel arc about Garance’s younger sister Charlotte, a breast-cancer survivor who later faces leukemia. Some viewers may feel the subplot overloads the film, yet Exarchopoulos remains unsentimental and funny in moments that cut through the melodrama. The director’s approach evokes Cassavetes, pairing the struggles of acting with the grip of personal demons.
Toward the end, Garance begins to glimpse a path beyond the bottle, aided by a blunt addictologist who helps her see a route to recovery. The most resonant moments arrive in the film’s intimate, messy beats, where a hardened exterior softens and a rare, unguarded smile breaks through the fatigue.
Bottom line: Exarchopoulos delivers a commanding, unflinching performance and the film offers an honest, if imperfect, look at addiction and art. It lingers where the real, messy life of a performer collides with the desire to change.
Full credits
- Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)
- Cast: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Sara Giraudeau, Sarajeanne Drillaud, Anne Suarez, Mathilde Roehrich, Brigitte Sy, Hélène Alexandridis
- Director, screenwriter: Jeanne Herry
- Producers: Alain Attal, Hugo Sélignac
- Cinematography: Antoine Cormier
- Production design: Nicolas de Boiscuillé
- Costume design: Ariane Daurat
- Editor: Pascal Sangla
- Composer: Laurence Briaud
- Sales: Studiocanal
- In French
- Running time: 2 hours
Source: Original article
Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/another-day-review-adele-exarchopoulos-1236598130/
