The Model (I) (2016) User Reviews

Leaves a bad taste...

[peter_x94 · 7/10 · 30 December 2016]

I voted 7 of 10 cause it has a message .

Basically it's an emotional roller-coaster where you are trying to decide if you should hate or feel sorry for the main character .

Well.. i don't do reviews , but there are at least 700 movies i liked more , but i bothered to review this one .

I'm not sure how well it reflect the reality of a young model in Paris , but certainly it's disturbing . It's not your standard issue action , comedy , or romance movie , and that is why is so captivating .

Earlier i mentioned it's a 'rollercoaster' , well it's a special kind . After each loop , the actions become even more disturbing , until it reaches it's climax , but even after that , a phone call arrives . After so many messed up and unfortunate events the main character gets it's lifetime opportunity . And we are left hanging on this last choice of hers ( accepting or refusing ), as we don't get a response . It leaves you really thinking about things that are not obvious for the ordinary people and what hides under the smile of a supermodel (or it could be a cliffhanger for the second part , who knows...)

I've seen worse, but I've seen plenty better

[euroGary · 6/10 · 23 June 2016]

'The Model' opens with shots of city streets - but what city? It's not New York - no gleaming skyscrapers - and those narrow, hilly streets belong to neither London nor Copenhagen (this is a Danish film). Actually, it is Paris - director Mads Matthiesen fooling the viewer by ignoring the film convention that every establishing shot of the French capital must feature the Eiffel Tower. The story follows Emma, a painfully slim young Dane, who arrives in the city ready to begin her career as a fashion model. Her supporting cast are quickly established - Zofia, a prickly fellow model who becomes her friend; and a fatherly landlord. Her first shoot, with temperamental British photographer Shane, does not go well, but one dance at a nightclub later and Emma is not only Shane's favourite model but is also tumbling into bed with him. Soon she is swept up in an exciting lifestyle of glamorous fashion shoots, girly confidences with Zofia and parties where dishes of cocaine are presented as interesting table decorations.

To be frank, the film is not a success. The storyline is very soapy, but the pacing is slow in far too many places. This is partly because central character Emma, as played by Maria Palm (a real-life model), is rather glum and lifeless, wafting about the screen like a floaty curtain (but Palm deserves credit for acting not just in her native Danish, but also in English and French). The viewer's feeling that he's watching a soap opera is reinforced by Ed Skrein as Shane, whose husky voice and showy mannerisms are straight out of 'Hollyoaks'. The story does not share with the viewer the legal ramifications for Emma of the climactic scene (you'll know when you've reached it) and there's a very noticeable continuity error when, during a conversation between Emma and Shane, the camera focuses on the back of the latter's neck - in one shot the label of his T-shirt is sticking up, in the next it's no longer visible - a minor thing, admittedly, but one I found distracting. All of which means I'm marking this film 'must try harder'.

Atmospheric but miserable ending

[jelly-92265 · 7/10 · 24 September 2017]

I quite enjoyed this film even if it was a bit unrealistic. For example what parent would allow one so young to go to Paris alone to pursue a modelling career? Also, success seems to come quickly and easily to Emma which seems at odds with most other portrayals of this business. She seems to operate largely on her own, navigating this teeming world in relative isolation and most of the ill-fated events are engineered by her. Yes, many of the men she meets are opportunists but none act until Emma more or less gives the go-ahead. Her passivity strikes me more as sullen disregard for protocol than naivety and she continues to flourish despite her unsophisticated and childish responses to that very cynical and brutal world. Even at the end she can have success if she chooses it and this was the most disappointing aspect of the film-the ending. A real let down. OK we can make up our own mind about why it ended this way and what happens next but I don't want to do that-I want the film maker to provide the answer-to complete the theme of the narrative.

The Neon Model

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 2 September 2016]

Maybe without the Neon and definitely not as good as the Refn movie I'm referring too. But still quite good for a B-movie with a similar story. The life of models is a tough one you see? But how tough and how people are handling the issues that arise depends on the person themselves and how they act and react to certain situations.

Having said that, be aware that there is nudity, though that should not be the main selling point nor the main reason why you should avoid it (hopefully). Very powerful performances and a really good well thought of script (with some clichés thrown in for good measure of course as always), that will keep the suspense up until the end.

Unsettling

[SpicyRamenDude · 7/10 · 24 April 2021]

The tone of the movie is good. I don't feel relax watching the stuff that happens. You can see that is a grounded in reality that this can happen to a model. The ending is good too. It her choice if she wants to go back that hellish glamorous world of fashion or back to her comfort zone.

sickly sentimental story

[ElliesWonder · 4/10 · 17 October 2017]

Paris is always one of the cities that I dream to be live, Paris is a word of romantic and fashion. Unfortunately, two French movies I watched recently, 'The Model' and 'L'amant double', both are pretty sick for me. I think I am probably 'not acclimated' to Paris culture because both movies showed me nothing besides sex and lies.

The main character from The Model, Emma is a coquette. In my hometown words, we classify these kinds of women and named them 'Green Tea be-tri' - the one who is fresh as green tea that good at acting naive and innocent, but an emotional manipulator.

What is the movie about:

Emma came to Paris for her modeling career, she screwed up her first job and reclaimed the job by seduced the photographer. She lied to the photographer that she doesn't have a boyfriend, in fact she usually has one back in town. Up to that point, I wasn't surprised or mad if Emma just simply fall in love with another guy. The photographer is handsome, and famous that will be helpful to her career. Besides, long distance relationship is difficult, especially living in a foreign country, people have to face everything new, and cannot be comforted when they need it. What goes wrong after was Emma played between men, she cheated to different men.

I couldn't imagine how this plot could be wrote in such unexpected stupid and dramatic. Soon after, the girl not just played with 2 men, she played with 3! After Emma was found to have an affair with the third person, the photographer ended their relationship. Then Emma pretended to be pregnant to get him back, but soon was caught, and betrayed by her roommate. The ending is even more dramatic soapy, spoilers can be included in few words with rape, knife and police, and I have no more interested to recall them in details because I am speechless and sick already.

My option/Why I don't like

The movie exaggerated this chaotic relationship and the temptation, Yet lack of reality, and ignore those genuine hard workers. I can never be a fan of this kind of sickly sentimental story, too fake and negative. It also demonized the model industry.

What in the world...

[chrislesmckis · 5/10 · 9 April 2017]

Geeze this movie had a lot of potential. I know it was an over dramatization of a real situation, but i feel like this movie could have delivered so much more. There are parts of the movie that are really strong, and you become intrigued and you feel very invested in the movie, but it falls flat almost immediately. The ending somewhat saved it, but you don't necessarily feel her loss, you just feel somewhat benign. I would love to see a remake of this movie, but with a better screenplay. I loved the lead male photographer and female model. you also see full front of a very hairy dude. Hes hot but not well groomed. thats not a spoiler. its just a fact.

... is-she-that-special

[bjarias · 4/10 · 26 July 2021]

... would a highly successful fashion-photographer get involved w-a teenager having not a clue regarding her-actual-age ... highly-unlikely... & that's basically most important bit regarding entire production... (can that be a spoiler) ... boring-script uninteresting-characters... (FTR Palm was born in '93)

Young aspiring model loses her way

[franklydude · 8/10 · 21 August 2016]

A 2016 movie about a young model who is taken advantage of (a little) by some of the people she meets in Paris... I agree with the previous reviewer; it's well made, good story line, well acted, giving a balanced picture of the modelling industry, and one girl's story of how things can go wrong, & survival. There was another 2016 movie about a model, "Neon Demon", and this was 100 times more worthwhile, and probably cost a lot less to make! The audio & visual impact of Neon Demon was awesome, but it was a hollow waste of time, and the publicity machine made it look attractive. If "The Model" was treated the same way, it would still have been good, but it didn't need the gloss or powerful audio track to make it work. Some of the dialogue is in Danish, but you don't really need subtitles to understand what's being said.

Trashy at its best

[camilcost · 1/10 · 2 March 2022]

If you feel like wasting 1 hour and half of your day, please go watch this film. The dialogues are shallow and dull, the main characters personality and behavior are disgraceful and immoral, plus, as you keep watching you'll realize the plot is as bad as it can get. The acting seems descente enough, though, I'll give you that.

Great independent film, masterful touches...

[catweazl · 10/10 · 27 November 2019]

This is a strong, solid film...has alot going for it believable performance by Maria Palm as we experience Paris fashion world through her eyes.skillfully played out. Im not into high fashion and didn't think I would like this film but loved it.

Great use of cinema, tactile, unpredictable, lively engaging. Crew put in some solid effort with editing and soundtrack and mixing is quite brilliant , casting great too- hats off.

Where budget may have been lacking the filmaker concentrated on story and characters and it worked. The film is fresh and you don't miss what bigger budgets give because the script is so good.

The film also has just the right pacing with room to Breathe and think, something rare nowadays.

A Great achievement all around I'm looking forward to seeing what this director can do with a bigger budget, knock out socks off I'm sure!

I haven't seen a movie so well made for a long time. It was really well logically though over.

[johnostrowka · 8/10 · 27 May 2016]

I have to say that it is a strong 8/10. The movie is showing how easily modeling/fashion industry can manipulate young and inexperienced. What I liked the most (!!!minor spoiler!!!) was the opening scene showcasing the streets of Paris. These scenes were shown also at the end of the movie and made great framing of the whole movie. What is more important is that after experiencing the movie we are not going to look at, the ending photos of these street in Paris, the same. They are no longer going to be so innocently to the eyes of the audience. Anyway, I would strongly recommend this movie to everyone who enjoys watching drama focused around the life of newly "discovered" model in the fashion industry. I also think that "The Model" is also right movie, for anyone who likes to watch something slightly more demanding than another blockbuster movie.

Dangerous depth. Really

[McScared · 9/10 · 8 August 2019]

I really loved this film.

That's quite an accomplishment for a story that is dark, and characters who are unsympathetic. But it raises important issues that need to be examined and discussed.

Very well acted, well directed, written and edited.

I can understand why some people might not like a film that poses controversial questions, and fearlessly goes where most dare not tread. But I appreciated that it dared to go to those places.

It's a great film to discuss if you have open minded, intelligent friends who appreciate that victimization isn't always as clear cut as we would like it to be.

Or, you may just end up losing friends afterwards. #NOTaMEtooStory

A story about dreams, passion & obsession

[bubbly547 · 10/10 · 24 September 2021]

Great movie. The film starts off portraying a young girl simply chasing her dreams and falling in love, but it later develops into something much more twisted and sinister.

It is a reminder of how cruel the world can be and also how our actions in the real world always carry consequences, and that there's no escaping reality.

I don't know about dreams...

[juanmuscle · 10/10 · 24 February 2019]

At first I was like wt, what is going on here, this small town chick arrives at Frances hauter culture to become a big time model , her dream is Chanel covers and everything that comes with it, but soon things unravel as the story unfurls with some madcap fun of course...

I felt like this should of been a series or a novel as it skipped big chunks of information from scene to scene, big leaps forward were unduly revealing their potent intelligence unbeknownst to us as if the writing could not bear the strictures of film's terribly chocking timeline...

But then who cares, a huge leap there and now here and soon we have all we need in this strange hodge podge of broken scenes muddled together ; and we get it, its film, sometimes that's the price everyone pays, I've always said some movies that people complain about or even pan are not that bad they just need a bit more time to sort themselves out, they perhaps are in the wrong medium , but really in film law do we have to end a film under 2 hours? I mean who really cares, if there is financing and the script demands a designated enumeration of progressive scenes to collate together such that all will flow in a more natural fashion lest the time restraints produce the good ol' fashion contrived third act; this happens a lot where the first two acts are dreamy and ethereal affording the viewer the opportunity by the by to melt with the story line in an appealing fashion and then here comes the end right around the corner ramming mercilessly the last bits of very crucial information down our chroats without pity or remorse and we leave jilted and scorned.

But here it worked for the final scene really sets up everything we invested in the story in a neat and sort of interesting Hithcocanian with vestiges of Twilight Zone fame.

Yes this worked, and yes I think it could of used a few extra scenes, perhaps just under five minutes but who knows, those extra five minutes could amount to millions at the end of a film working days so , I take what I get and run with it, here , the ending came hard and fast but not unlike the lifestyle , it too runs fast and hard over the participants...

It was very good, I would recommend it...

Me too movement?

[william-71506 · 10/10 · 5 January 2023]

Me-to-movement sent a lot of powerful Hollywood people and rich people into jail, but not in 2016 when this movie was produced. This movie is probably a good description of the meToo in action: a teenage girl pretends to be an adult and sexually lures a big fashion figure (photographer Shane) into bed. The sexually bribed fashion figure hires the young woman and makes her into a fashion star. The photographer is not a devoted family man and continues fooling around. A fight between the two drives the man into a jerk who fires the girl from his fashion business. And she turns crazy. Without meToo prosecutors/lawyers and meToo judges (2016 was too early), the photographer didn't go to jail and the young girl didn't get rich. Fast forward to 2020s (6 years after the movie time), powerful meToo prosecutors/lawyers and judges turned the powerful Hollywood jerks and rich people into criminals without any physical evidence, and a good number of successful gold diggers were born.