Hold Me Tight

2021 [FRENCH]

Drama

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 48% · 49 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 48%
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 2403 2.4K

Plot summary

At dawn, Clarisse takes a last look at her husband and two sleeping children, hesitates to leave a note, and hits the road. A desperate escape that gradually reveals its layers as Clarisse — who seems to have an extra-sensory connection to the family she has left behind — loses herself in the world.

Director

Mathieu Amalric Photo
Mathieu Amalric

Top cast

Vicky Krieps Photo
Vicky Krieps as Clarisse
Arieh Worthalter Photo
Arieh Worthalter as Marc
Aurélia Petit Photo
Aurélia Petit as La copine de la station-service
Erwan Ribard Photo
Erwan Ribard as L'agent immobilier
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
892.71 MB
1280*692
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
Seeds 6
1.79 GB
1920*1038
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by m-sileo 6 / 10

I was not prepared

Hold Me Tight, directed by Mathieu Amalric, opens with Clarisse, a woman who seems to make a sudden, baffling decision. She wakes early, tidies the house, and quietly leaves, abandoning her husband and two children as they sleep. Panic sets in when her family realizes she's not coming back, and questions loom over her disappearance. Amalric's unconventional structure begins to reveal itself as we follow Clarisse's journey in a hazy, fragmented timeline that blurs the boundaries of reality and fantasy, leaving us uncertain about the truth.From early on, we sense that something isn't quite right with Clarisse. She confronts a stranger, accusing him of mistreating her son, and then, strangely, applies fish-market ice to her face. These moments are surreal yet grounded, gradually revealing how Hold Me Tight plays with the very fabric of time and memory. Amalric masterfully guides us through a narrative that jumps across time, space, and even Clarisse's own imagination. As scenes transition lyrically between what's real and what might not be, a deeper, darker truth emerges, reshaping our understanding of her departure.The film's driving force is Vicky Krieps' deeply nuanced performance as Clarisse, whose portrayal becomes even more compelling as the layers of her story unravel. By the time we reach the film's midpoint, we're able to confront her situation more directly, and Amalric's fragmented narrative begins to come into clearer focus. In the end, Hold Me Tight is an exploration of grief and longing that resists conventional interpretation, inviting us instead into a complex, hauntingly beautiful meditation on loss.
Reviewed by derek-duerden 7 / 10

Very Affecting

Vicky Krieps is a very interesting actor and here she gets to display a great range of mood and emotion in a way that (for me) was much more satisfying than Corsage (for example).It takes a while before it's clear what's going on - so don't give up after 20 minutes. Once the various perspectives and timelines start to gel, it turns into a quietly devastating study in grief and exploration of the potentials of life, which I found very thought-provoking. Amalric doesn't strongly signal the differences between the "real" and "imagined" scenes - which could be frustrating - but perhaps was intentional to try and match the possible chaos of Clarisse's thoughts and emotions.Well worth a look.(Spoilery bit: For what it's worth, I don't think she ever really left her family. She fantasises this scenario in order that she can visualise them all getting on with their lives without her - in particular so that her children can have a future. As opposed to what "really happened", when they all left *her*, accidentally.)
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