Gist: A tragic and harrowing night with a young couple attending a party is seen in reverse order of chronology.

Supposed Godlessness: Welcome to the uncompromisingly vicious and cruel nighttime world of director Gaspar Noé. This film contains one of single most unwatchable scenes of the last decade — the brutal rape and beating of a young woman in a train underpass — with an absolutely unflinching style that makes the episode even more disturbing. Because each scene is in reverse chronology, the entire thing — including the revenge taken by the woman’s boyfriend — feels intractable and obligatory. There’s no room for faith.
Counter Argument: Since the film is so obviously an exercise in manipulation — from its chronology shtick to its scenes of ultraviolence — it can be said to have little else to say of any particular merit.

Conclusion: Another of the if-there-were-a-God-how-could-He-allow-this? kind of films, but any further meditation on the nature of our religious beliefs is pretty much blown out of the water by the shocking nature of the material.

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