Alice and Martin

Handsome, stormy Alexis Loret gives a memorable performance in his screen debut as the Martin half of Alice and Martin, a bipolar young man haunted by guilt over the death of his callous father, and forever flighty from a hard childhood under dad's stern hand. Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) is also affecting as Alice, his slightly older lover who tries to quell his tortured psyche. But this awkward drama about romance, estrangement and what people are willing to do for love is such a structural mess that it's impossible to get lost in the strength of the performances because you're too busy trying to keep up with the tangled narrative that lurches around in time without rhyme or reason. Co-writer and director André Téchiné (Thieves) peppers the inorganic, disjointed storytelling with some artistically inspired cinematography but never gives viewers the opportunity to emotionally invest in these characters before the film collapses into abstract convolution. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)