TWENTYNINE PALMS no stars

Bruno Dumont is famous for his sex scenes which are explicit if not altogether numerous. When they aren't having sex his characters usually mope and do very little. Some people mistake this for depth. "Twentynine Palms" is a road movie, filmed in America, mostly in English with a little French and no subtitles, in which a photographer and his lover drive across the desert to a place called Twentynine Palms, stopping every so often to have sex. You might say that if Antonioni could get away with it in "Zabriske Point" then why can't Dumont, the difference being, of course, that Antonioni was an artist with something to say about the state of America at the time while Dumont's concerns are much more insular, interested in nothing but his two characters and even then, not much interested in them.

It might have helped if the characters themselves were interesting but they are simply self-centered and dull while the landscapes, (endless roads, rocks, cacti and motels), are equally boring. It's really just another case of the old ennui and the sexual act doesn't get more interesting just because it's being performed on the top of some rocks, (though I suppose it does give an extra layer of meaning to the expression 'Getting your rocks off'). Also for some reason Mr Dumont chooses to end things very badly indeed for his dull couple, perking the film up a tad in the closing minutes