If the Tribeca Film Festival is known for anything, it’s that it is a treasure trove of documentaries. The festival doesn’t discriminate and features a large selection of docs covering a wide array of topics, some are fascinating, engaging and highly compelling while others, well, they’re not. One such documentary titled Ne Me Quitte Pas skews more towards the latter of the crop.
Directed by Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Neils van Koevorden, Ne Me Quitte Pas chronicles the lives of two Belgian farmers in the midst of their mid-life crises. The main subject of the film, Marcel, finds himself lost after his wife and love of his life leaves him for another man. Left emotionally destroyed, Marcel becomes a serious alcoholic and falls into a deep depression with only his best friend Bob, who is also an alcoholic but a level headed one at that, to turn to for help and comfort.
Ne Me Quitte Pas is one of those docs that portrays life for what it is, ruthless, funny, and depressing. It’s a film that nobody would really ever want to watch for fear of seeing themselves, a friend, or family member on screen, essentially reliving a terrible past that’s preferred to be forgotten. Let’s be honest, who really wants to see a regular guy become an alcoholic through depression? It’s one thing if you have the opportunity to help that person but it is another to sit back and have no control over what is about to happen. You see a man who eventually wants to rid himself of his addiction, become sober, but then he puts himself in a situation that causes him to revert back to his old habits, it’s sad, it’s frustrating and ultimately depressing. This is what makes Ne Me Quitte Pas a solid doc but also one that you’ll never watch.
This leads me to my main point, why should we care about these two random Belgian guys when there are likely people in our own lives that exhibit these traits? Is it supposed to be an educational documentary to understand how frail a man’s ego is? Is it supposed to show non-alcoholics what it’s like for someone to become one and what’s it’s like to regress back into that habit? The main question is why should we care, and when that question doesn’t have a good answer that’s when you know that it’s a film/subject you can easily pass on.
Regardless of my above rant, there are some funny moments in the film but not ones you can necessarily “enjoy.” Watching Marcel get smashed and then crash into a wall was hilarious, especially after Bob throws water on him to wake him up. There’s also another scene when Marcel has a hangover and Bob suggests that he sniff ammonia to wake up. Yes, these moments are hilarious but soon after you finish laughing you realize how sad it is, that we’re laughing at one man’s misfortunes, a result of a marriage that has now failed. In fact, it just shows us how if we allow ourselves to become weak without the right support around us we could easily become what Marcel is.
Personally, I didn’t like Ne Me Quitte Pas because I didn’t find it compelling or engaging. I can appreciate the film, its subjects and what it was trying to accomplish, but it’s not one I would ever recommend. This is a film that will likely only have a life on the film festival circuit. To be brutally honest, this isn’t even a documentary that you would ever want to see in a theater, nor is it one that you select when browsing Netflix, this is a feature length public service announcement that you’d find on PBS or something you’d show in school to understand how easy it is to lose yourself to bad habits and how difficult it is to try and rid yourself of them.
From casual discussions of double suicide, to chronic alcoholism (both diagnosed and not), Ne Me Quitte Pas isn’t a film to watch on a sunny day, in fact it isn’t a film to watch when you’re feeling somber either. There really is never a good time to watch this doc because it points out the harsh realities of depressing lives and how some people cope with it.
Rating: A depressing and occasionally interesting inside look at a real mid-life crisis (4/10)
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