An average movie

I already saw this movie but I was wondering if it was still deserving its poor reputation after all these years so I wanted to check it out again. Well, the answer would be ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Indeed, back then, this movie was really poorly received and it was even considered as one of the worst movies displayed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. To be honest, I have to admit that the damned thing was much weaker than I remembered. The one thing that bothered me even more the second time around were the flashback scenes. Sure, the scenes were there to establish why the main character would go to Japan to kill himself but it would have worked better without these flashbacks which felt rather useless. Indeed, even though Naomi Watts and Matthew McConaughey made an attractive couple, it was probably one of the most pathetic couples I have ever seen in a movie. I mean, sure, they probably loved each other at some point but, by now, it was pretty obvious that they hated each other guts so why on Earth did they stay together? Especially if they were both healthy and they didn’t have any kids, I really didn’t see why they should keep on going on like this. The fact that I’m myself in a very toxic relationship for almost 20 years obviously made the whole thing even more annoying to watch. Finally, the idea that a life threatening illness would suddenly solve all their problems in their marriage was also naive and even ludicrous (Indeed, my wife did get seriously ill at some point and it didn’t improve our relationship, it just made our situation even more complicated). And why on Earth did she have to die in a car accident? Seriously, that was another ridiculous useless twist. Eventually, the focus should have been set on his trip in this strange forest and this forest is the main reason why I don’t think this movie was a complete disaster. Indeed, I had never heard of this place, this Aokigahara forest where almost 100 people go to take their own life every year, and there was something quite fascinating about this place. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing didn’t work at all though and I would have to agree that it is indeed one of Gus Van Sant’s worst movies.