Mark Reviews Movies: ALINE

Aline, Roadshow Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | April 7, 2022

At the start, co-writer/director/star Valérie Lemercier's Aline announces itself as both inspired by the life of the famous singer Celine Dion and a work of fiction. This leads to a bit of confusion, especially when the main character turns up on stage and belts out several well-known Dion songs.

This isn't Dion, though—a point that's turned into a joke when the protagonist is referred to as "Celine" at one point, only to be corrected. Then again, the character is Dion, because this story and the music obviously belong to the real-life singer. Still, she isn't, because, while the filmmakers clearly paid someone or a lot of people for the rights to all those songs, they apparently adopted the notion that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission when it came to portraying Dion's biography.

The opening disclaimer adds that the movie's existence as a work of fiction, with some dramatic license in terms of events and characters, is keeping with the filmmakers' artistic intentions, and one can read that opening text either as a mission statement or as some clever and precisely worded legalese. Like the actual reason for the movie's approach to telling Dion's story and simultaneously asserting that it's not really telling it, how one reads the disclaimer is open to some interpretation.

The whole thing is very strange, and hence, it was almost certainly unavoidable that the resulting movie would be equally as weird. To be fair, Lemercier's narrative is going for some notions about the inescapable effects of time and how the vital parts of life happen in between the seemingly consequential moments. If this hadn't been about Dion and also not about her, the movie might have been on to something. Instead, the entire affair is cloaked by layers and layers of unnecessary paradoxes and oddities.

In the early sections of the story, the most notable oddity is the decision for Lemercier to play the eponymous character over the course of her life—from a shy but talented child, to an awkward pre-adolescent, to a teenage star on the rise, to an adulthood of continual superstardom. Aline Dieu (Like a lot here, it's so transparent that it's kind of funny) is a later-life baby for her mother Sylvette (Danieller Fichaud) and father Anglomard (Roc LaFortune). As a child growing up in a large family of musicians, she can sing with a big voice at a young age.

With some skill but a lot of questions about why anyone would think to do it, Lemercier's face is digitally transplanted on to the body of that child. As that 12-year-old girl, looking to become a client for well-known manager Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel), the actor sits low in a chair, occasionally raising her adult-sized hands into frame and making the phony illusion even more laughable. That's saying something. Every time the young Aline turns up on screen, one wonders if this is meant to be a parody.

As the character ages, the humor dissipates (although Aline finding an engagement ring from Guy-Claude in her mouth after eating some ice cream again makes us wonder if this material is a gag), but the story falls into that well-worn pattern of biographical structure and cliché. Aline's career takes off in a flash with Guy-Claude's help and the support of her mother, and after a few years off to get through adolescence, her career rockets even higher.

Some conflict emerges with Sylvette when Aline reveals she loves the decades-older Guy-Claude, but it's dismissed as soon as the two get married. Most of the difficulties here are like that, too. Aline wants to have children, and after years of trying, she does, eventually. The gossipy press make jokes about Aline's fame and fortune, but it doesn't matter, because she's rich and famous. When she gets a steady gig doing shows in Las Vegas, it's tough to balance her desire to be with her family and perform every night, until it isn't.

By the way, those various performances, with Aline singing recognizable songs from Dion's catalogue (It's clear the selection available to the filmmakers was limited, considering how many times one song keeps popping up on the soundtrack), possess an unfortunate disconnect. The singing is done by Victoria Sio, whose voice sounds eerily and admirably similar to Dion's, but Lemercier's physicality and lip-syncing simply aren't as convincing.

The rushed storytelling and focus on the seemingly inconsequential details of Aline's life don't help, especially since it's not until the final act that life going by in a flash of little details becomes the movie's point. Until then, it's not even clear if Aline is to be taken seriously or as a joke, but the movie feels mostly like the latter.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products

Buy the Soundtrack

Buy the Soundtrack (Digital Download)