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Chang Liu

Film Exercise

A. Volpe

October 4th, 2010

Love Me if You Dare

The 2003 French film, Love Me if You Dare, is a comedic romance that takes place in Belgium

narrating the relationship between Sophie Kowalsky and Julien Janvier. The French counterpart to its

title is Jeux D’enfants, which directly translates to “Games of Children.” The plot revolves around a game

that the two protagonists invent consisting of each taking turns daring the other to complete a task that

usually results in negative consequences. Once one has completed his or her mission, the other gives

him or her a special tin candy box which then gives the holder the power to dare the other player. These

dares range from yelling swear words in class to outright cruel treatment of their lovers. The

consequences of these tasks increase in significance as the relationship grows. The two become the best

of friends, and then slowly develop feelings for each other, although neither wants to admit it, which

results in both being hurt. After much emotional turmoil, the film finishes with a surreal happy ending of

Sophie and Julien confessing their love for each other and then growing old together.

Love Me if You Dare has a plot that is made intentionally unclear in certain aspects, thereby

provoking its audience to question and think for themselves. The film is told from Julien’s viewpoint and

there are some parts of the movie that are obviously the fantasies of Julien because the characters are

transformed into cartoons and puppets in an animated world. The large spectrum of realism makes the

viewer wonder at some parts of the story which could have actually happened in the plot or could have

been the product of Julien’s imagination. The ending is the best example of this. At that point, Sophie is

the wife of a professional soccer star and Julien is married with two children. At the final confrontational

scene, Sophie and Julien confess their love for each other in the pouring rain, but not before Sophie’s
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husband knocks Julien out with a punch. Julien is expected to fall over on the wet ground, but instead,

he is shown falling into a deep pool or ocean of water. The next minute is split between realistic flashes

of Sophie attempting to resurrect Julien and dreamy flashes of Julien buried unconscious in a blue-grey

expanse of water. Later on, the two participate in “The Dare of Dares,” which is when they both wait for

their death together in a pit while it is being filled with cement. This scene is tied with the opening scene

where the special candy box is found to be half buried in the cemented ground. After the two are

completely covered in cement, an alternative ending is shown where Sophie and Julien are living

together as an old couple and still playing their game of dares. The different ways that the plot can be

taken leaves the film open to interpretation. The audience can believe what they like, which makes the

movie more personal.

The visual style of Love Me if You Dare moves the audience subconsciously. In the first half of

the film, when Sophie and Julien were young, the screen portrays their world as slightly fuzzy and

nostalgic, with warmer tones and highlighting. As the movie progresses into the two’s teenage and

eventually their adulthood years, the imagery becomes sharper, and the colors more realistic. In the

final scenes of the two living happily in their old age, their world is again fuzzy, with a strong sepia tint.

These subtle variations have the power to change how the audience perceives each scene. The warm

and fuzzy tones transform the mood into more nostalgic and sweet while the crisper lines show more

realistic adulthood life. Unless the viewer is observant or if he or she is specifically looking for the

changes in visual representation, it would be difficult for him or her to catch the differences in imagery

the first time viewing the film.

The imprudence and total disregard for consequences that Sophie and Julien display has the

potential to stir questions about how far romantic love should go and where moral responsibility lies in

relation to that love. With each dare, the repercussions for their actions grow more serious. Julien’s dare
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for Sophie in high school prevented her from passing her exams. Sophie’s dare for Julien at his wedding

caused him to lose his engagement with his fiancée and also for his father to break off all ties with him.

Julien’s final dare for Sophie involved tricking her to believe that he was seriously hurt in an accident

because of her, which drove her into a break down. This game seems to be ironic in that it pulls them

together with love but also pushes a substantial amount of pain into each of their lives. In some cases,

however, the indifference towards consequences is evidence that Julien and Sophie don’t have a care in

the world for anyone or anything in the world but each other. In one of the possible endings that the

film portrays, the two lovers choose to die together because they dared each other to. This scene is in

some ways the romanticist’s perfect ending because they consummate their game ultimately in their

death, which they share together. This unnecessary death can remind the audience of how irrational

love can be and how it can motivate us to be careless.

Love Me if You Dare is a provocative movie about how a game causes two people to do the

unthinkable. Its imagery has the ability to change the audience’s perception of the different parts of the

film. The surrealism found in many of its scenes and the different endings give viewers freedom to

believe what they want and interpret the meanings behind the story as they choose.

[971 words]
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Works Cited

Love Me if You Dare. Dir. Yann Samuell. Perf. Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard. Paramount Classics,

2003. DVD.