Amour tells striking tale of ageing

Emmanuelle Riva has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Amour. Source: Supplied

MOVIE REVIEW: A haunting, heartbreaking and utterly riveting look at real matters of life and death. The contrived events we often see in modern dramas are nowhere to be found.

All we will see for the duration of Amour is a happily married elderly couple staring an unthinkable end right in the eye. One of them is not long for this world. Both know it. This is the simple, powerful story of how each will accept the finality of the crisis before them.

The approach of filmmaker Michael Haneke is stark, but never quite bleak. Often quiet, but communicating messages any open-hearted viewer will hear all too loudly.

Some will consider the frame of reference of the picture to be exceedingly small. The action rarely leaves the confines of a cluttered Paris apartment.

Nevertheless, the emotional scope of Amour keeps broadening throughout.

The home that has been shared by the couple for many decades almost becomes a character in its own right.

As the spectre of death draws closer, the very lived-in familiarity of the abode issues a comfort and solace that the couple's daughter (Isabelle Huppert) and friends cannot.

Perhaps the most striking achievement of Amour is its moving, yet stoically unsentimental view of the ageing process.

If you feel you have watched one film many too where everybody over 70 appears to have become standardised caricatures of what we would like the elderly to be, you owe it to yourself to witness Amour.

If the authentic, wrenching experience designed by Haneke doesn't get to you, then the incredible performances by veteran leads Emmanuelle Riva (a Best Actress Oscar nominee) and Jean-Louis Trintignant most certainly will.

A multiple award winner at film festivals around the globe, and it is easy to see why. Highly recommended.

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Amour [M]

Rating: 4/5

Director: Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon)

Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert

"At the end, only love remains"

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