The story is illogical, unrelatable and told in the worst way possible - through a rationalized and lifeless confession in front of a psychiatrist. Everybody gives the worst acting performance in their life, especially the lady who plays the allegedly successful actress. Shakespeare is once again abused without any need or gain. The idea that God's new Son and flock are the yesterday's outcasts might have actually worked, but is not developed strongly enough throughout the movie to serve as a logical, let alone powerful ending.
Still, there's one scene that makes me think that Besson might actually not be asserting, but problematizing the shown ideas. In it the protagonist performs in a drag show as Edith Piaf: he opens his mouth and her voice comes out. No one seems to notice the fraud though, the audience in the club is in awe. But maybe the audience in the movie theater notices and here lies a message for them? If that's the case, all the other flaws of the movie can be seen as hints towards a different understanding: how unsustained it is to diabolize all men, to victimize and sanctitize all women, to free victims from responsibility for their harmful coping mechanisms and to praise them as fair instead.
Of course, that would make the movie only more clever, but not better, because the power dynamics problem does exist and although it should be addressed in a very different way than it is currently, it definitely shouldn't be minimized or denied.
Still, there's one scene that makes me think that Besson might actually not be asserting, but problematizing the shown ideas. In it the protagonist performs in a drag show as Edith Piaf: he opens his mouth and her voice comes out. No one seems to notice the fraud though, the audience in the club is in awe. But maybe the audience in the movie theater notices and here lies a message for them? If that's the case, all the other flaws of the movie can be seen as hints towards a different understanding: how unsustained it is to diabolize all men, to victimize and sanctitize all women, to free victims from responsibility for their harmful coping mechanisms and to praise them as fair instead.
Of course, that would make the movie only more clever, but not better, because the power dynamics problem does exist and although it should be addressed in a very different way than it is currently, it definitely shouldn't be minimized or denied.