FilmExchange Review: CQ2

Filed under: Reviews

CQ2 (Seek You Too) is the story of Rachel (Clara Furey), a troubled 17-year-old dancer who one day by some twist of fate decides to follow Jeanne (Danielle Hubbard), an older dance teacher, as she is released from prison. Jeanne and Rachel discover friendship and Rachel learns self-discovery through dance as she takes her first steps into adulthood under Jeanne's wing.

Carole Laure allows the audience to discover the story slowly as it opens up and introduces itself. In contrast to this gradual entrance, CQ2 leaves us all too quickly. There is a sense that reality suffers at the hand of filmic poetry. Everything is not brought to a close, although one could ask if this is necessary. Heavy matters such as Rachel's rape and Jeanne's second incarceration are left in the wind.

Clara Furey bursts on the scene with a rebellious vibrance that kicks the story forward through the ugliness and beauty that swirl around her character, Rachel. And amidst a cast of unfamiliar faces, Jean-Marc Barr â€" in his protrayal of Steven, the anchor to the enigmatic Jeanne â€" brings a firm backbone of experience and familiarity, and let us not forget that soft smile of his that has been seen many times before yet not once too often.

Carole Laure intertwines dancing heavily into the story, to the verge of excess, but its grace is a counterbalance to Jeanne's and Rachel's struggles. The cinematography is beautifully supportive yet unintrusive. The camera seems to flow with the dancers in the dance studios and glide through the forests around Steven's motel.

CQ2 is bound by contrasts that remain balanced even if sometimes precariously so. If the story at times falls short, the beauty of the dance can come in and sweep us off our feet. It is as though Laure would never have wanted CQ2 to be a thing of perfection. The spirit of the dance needs to be kept grounded by the struggle of Rachel's reality, but must take flight again to keep her going. To keep her dancing through it all. That is something we all need.

CQ2 is playing Thursday, March 3rd at 7:30pm at Globe Cinema as part of the 2005 NSI FilmExchange Festival in Winnipeg.

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