Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Load of rubbish!!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The death of a beloved person implies also a big loss, a loss which dependents refuse to believe.Director Ozon flurries and unsettles the viewer again. It begins with the cut right after the vanishing of Marie's (Charlotte Rampling) husband Jean. It's summer. The married couple apparently enjoys their vacation at the sea. Suddenly, Jean disappears and the search of the police remains without a result. Cut! Marie sits with friends at a table, ostensibly in a flashback, outside it's winterly, Marie tells from Jean, who is waiting at home. She goes shopping and buys some clothing items for Jean. However, by and by, the viewer realizes, that this is not a flashback: It is the time after Jean's vanishing and Marie lives on as if nothing has happened.The film concentrates only on Marie and her denial of reality, her non-acceptance of the loss, which goes so far, that she i. e. sees Jean in the door while she sleeps with another man, Vincent. Jean remains ubiquitous in Marie's life, he is always there and only disappears in a few scenes when reality comes in her life for a second. He is also present in the character of Vincent, whom she replaces with her missing husband, talks to him and treats him as if it was Jean.That's why the film takes place in Charlotte Rampling's face, who shows a fantastic performance: She appears in every scene, her mimics symbolize the whole suffering of Marie. In clear, calm shots Ozon glances at the emotional recovery of his protagonist. Behind her chilly facade, Rampling only forebodes the psychological precipice of her figure and screens the film from flying out into melodrama. Rampling is the undoubted highlight, the highlight of a film which leaves behind an unsettled viewer.

Losing a loved partner one has lived with for years can be a devastating thing to cope with, but not really knowing if he is dead or alive -- or worse, going into denial that he has died -- can lead a person right into the edge of the abyss. Such a thing should never happen to anyone, but it does to Charlotte Rampling's Marie Drillon, a university professor who is happily married to Jean Drillon (Bruno Cremer in a near-silent performance). The opening ten minutes describes everything one needs to know about them: their dynamics, their love for each other unquestioned, quiet, but as potent as a garden filled with the scent of roses and lavender.On a trip to the beach, Marie drifts into sleep as Jean decides to take a swim. When she awakes, she misses him and thinks he's within the area. Unfortunately, he is not... and the more she looks for him the less likely it is that he is alive. A search brings forth little comfort, and she if left from there on in limbo, wondering where Jean may be, if he is alive, or dead.Her behavior from then on becomes increasingly erratic, which is an indicative of what happens to a person who's become so attached to another and the horror that slowly arises to the surface when those ties are suddenly, irrationally severed. She catches a glimpse of a young college student and is suddenly unable to continue giving a lecture; she seems a little off at a dinner party; she has gone on a spending spree (buying a new shirt and tie for Jean) despite the fact that her account is overdrawn and due to Jean's disappearance she has no access to his funds (which leaves her in a predicament as to how will she survive). Above all, she is acting as though Jean is still alive and well.A particularly disturbing moment arrives when Marie decides to embark on an affair with another man who comes into her life: Vincent (Jacques Nolot) which establishes that maybe reality for her has finally cracked. Vincent and Marie begin making love, seen mainly through the motion of their hands... and then Jean's hands come into the left of the screen, identified through the blue shirt she bought him. It continues in perfect silence, with only her moans barely overheard. A later sequence has this odd threesome repeated as Jean observes her and Vincent making love from a distance.In many ways, UNDER THE SAND has the elements of a thriller. A disappearance, the search, and the inevitable revelation as to what exactly happened. However, when a person is so deep in denial, those things matter little, if at all. Marie receives the crucial call from the morgue and decides to ignore the message left. She seems unable, unwilling, to face what has happened, and one of the more heartbreaking scenes of her anguish take place in a small montage where she is seen alone, sitting on a subway station, then riding the train, looking forlorn and empty.Charlotte Rampling makes this her movie all the way. She's on screen at all times, and her performance is reminiscent of the one Juliette Binoche gave in BLUE. As a matter of fact, Binoche herself might have been the better choice, but Rampling is outstanding in her willingness to portray a woman in intense pain, suffering and coming apart from the inside out, desperate for answers but equally closed to them. Her disconsolate weeping at the end is an emotional tour-de-force wrenching itself out from its restraints, and that final scene on the beach as she runs towards the enigmatic, ghostly image of a man she believes to be her husband (whom she seemingly cannot reach) packs a devastating blow to the senses. A powerful masterpiece from the hands of Francois Ozon.

"Sous le sable" tells the story of Marie Drillon, excellently performed by Charlotte Rampling, whose husband disappears when they are on holiday after he went for a swim in the sea. What follows is the struggle of Marie who can't accept the fact that her husband is dead and that he will never return. In several scenes is shown that Marie still talks to her husband in the present tense, like he's only gone for a couple of days but will return very quickly. In one of the last scenes we know for sure her husband is dead because they found his body. In that scene, we see again that she just can't accept it because the body that is found has all the characteristics of her missing husband, but she still denies that it is her husband.Charlotte Rampling gives a remarkable performance. The movie is partly based on something Francois Ozon experienced in real life. Years ago, when he was at the beach, he saw a woman who's husband was went for a swim in the sea and didn't seem to return. He always wondered what happened to the woman and her missing husband. Excellent movie, Francois Ozon is a brilliant director. I've seen "8 Femmes" as well and this is also a very good movie, although it's something completely different.8/10

This is definitely Charlotte Rampling's film. On the screen nearly all the time she admirably plays the part of Marie, a middle-aged woman whose husband Jean disappears suddenly during a sunny day at a lonely beach.Her mounting despair and refusal to accept the facts which seem to point to his certain death by drowning grip our attention at once. The uncertainty of the incident and her disbelief nurture in us the hope, however meagre, that somehow or other he is still alive.The acting throughout is both sensitive and convincing. Charlotte Rampling is a great actress moving with such grace she can even make the preparation of a cup of coffee interesting to watch. The magic of this film is found in the simple every day incidents that make up our lives...like going to the beach or wondering who is at the other end when the telephone rings. Add to this a mystic quality and you have a winner.Not every one perhaps will agree with the ending, but I think this one is intriguing. A big question mark confronts us. Our hopes rise..... There comes to mind the old saying...."The wish is father of the thought".