Cannes 2022: Stars at Noon is a sexually charged romantic thriller, let down by an unconvincing and wafer-thin plot

An American ‘freelance journalist’, after having ticked off some powerful people in the volatile Nicaragua, turns to sex work to survive and win her passport back in this Claire Denis drama, screened at the Cannes film festival in the competition section. Standing on a somewhat shaky premise of a verbose yet evocative 1986 novel by Denis Johnson, the film updates itself to contemporary times with the Covid crisis and smartphones. It is nevertheless an uninvolved and banal effort that unconvincingly tries to distract the viewer to forget its shortcomings with its lead’s tantalizing allure, played by Margaret Qualley. Stars at Noon opens with Trish, a rum-swigging, self-proclaimed freelance journalist, wandering the streets of a Nicaraguan town before walking into a fast-food restaurant and ordering Coca Cola, only to be told that it’s not available. She’s frustrated by the lack of creature comforts like a bottle of Coke and her current preoccupation includes buying a bottle of shampoo for which she must sleep with a commando. Not to mention, her incredible looking curls do little to convince us that she’s in need of hair products at all. Not even two scenes later, she walks into the bar of the intercontinental hotel and orders a martini, where she also has an encounter with an Englishman with whom she immediately proposes sex in exchange for money. She’s hustling to not only survive in Nicaragua but also to save money to retrieve her confiscated passport. A futile video call with an editor (the only convincing character in the whole movie, a bit part played by John C Reilly) of a luxury magazine later, she’s back to stalking the Englishman as the film takes off. For a journalist, Trish seems to have the maturity of a teenager who just got out of school, leaping into puddles, and stealing toilet papers from hotel bathrooms. Except for the measly clues, there’s no background to her story: I shouldn’t have written that stupid article about kidnappings and hangings, she tells someone once. Frustrated by the lack of a functioning system, she storms out of a bank, screaming, “American tanks are going to come and crush you.” Joe Alwyn is the Englishman Daniel, an oil company employee, who’s in Nicaragua for a feasibility study for his company’s expansion plans. He crosses paths with Costa Rican cops that endangers his life, making him a fugitive on the run. But we’re told his super rich oil company simply abandons him after bringing him all the way to Central America. While it’s already hard to invest in these characters without credible backstory, the film further falters in the absence of discernible chemistry between its leads. Trish and Daniel meet, have sex in tastefully shot scenes, run away together for the safety of their lives - yet as much their fates seem tied to each other’s survival, their relationship never elevates to show greater emotional intensity. For all its intrigue about the CIA machinery inching menacingly on a British oil employee, there’s precious little detail about any reason as to why, everything is alluded to, but nothing is explained in detail. Furthermore, the characters speak in platitudes about peace and stability in Central America it’s impossible to not sigh audibly. All that said, Qualley’s Trish is a treat to watch but she’s let down by the surface level treatment meted out to her character’s writing. Whoever decided she’d play a journalist didn’t even manage to stuff a notebook and pen in her otherwise empty sling bag, the least effort required to get a journalist’s role right. But she knows there’s too much vermouth in her martini, so there’s that. One can’t say the same thing about Joe Alwyn’s Daniel who seems to sleepwalk in his role that also treats him like an accessory, disposable when time is ripe. In the end, the film is incoherent and a hodgepodge of too many themes, none explored enough so it ends up as a heavily overcooked mélange of espionage drama and political thriller in a sexually charged setup. Stars at Noon is shot beautifully, its textural camerawork complements the rhythms of Claire Denis style storytelling where the humid streets and jungles of the tropics (Panama is the stand in for Nicaragua) come alive alongside its actors. Unfortunately, all its high points are lost like a ball in the weeds because the film is let down by a weak story, resulting in the lack of emotional gravitas. Prathap Nair is an independent culture features writer based in Germany. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.