“One plus one makes two. It can’t make one. Can it make one?”
- Simon Marwan

It’s such a joy to see where Villeneuve really started grasping his directing chops. A dueling plot like this can be lost in its procedural chronology, but Denis never fails to highlight the humanity in his stories. Both adventures are raw and ruinous, but not to any unbelievable degree. Each new turn brings to light a new understanding of oneself (past and present), and the final act is just brilliant filmmaking. From the shocking revelation to the posthumous letter narration, Villeneuve knows how to end a film.