Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Pauline Loquès
Starring: Théodore Pellerin, William Lebghil, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Balibar, Camille Rutherford, Mathieu Amalric
If you liked the recent Angelina Jolie vehicle Couture and are hankering for another Paris-set drama in which a character processes a sudden and unexpected cancer diagnosis, you're in luck. Where Couture gave us the female perspective on such a scenario, Nino presents the story from a male POV, though it is directed and co-written by two women (director Pauline Loquès and co-writer Maud Ameline).
On the Friday before his 29th birthday, Nino (Théodore Pellerin) visits his local hospital to receive the result of recent tests on what he believes is nothing more than a stubborn sore throat. He is shocked to learn he has throat cancer, a result of an STD he contracted several years earlier. Before he has a chance to process this unwanted news, Nino is told that his treatment will begin the following Monday. He is also informed that if he wants to become a father at some later point he will need to freeze his sperm before he begins treatment.
Playing out over the subsequent weekend, Nino follows the title character as he interacts with various friends, family members and strangers. In typical male fashion, he puts on a stoic front, largely keeping his diagnosis to himself. When he does try to broach the subject with others, they either misunderstand him (when he informs his mother he will be undergoing a prolonged period of treatment she immediately assumes he is transitioning) or are too consumed with their own affairs to actually pay him attention. Locked out of his apartment, Nino becomes reliant on the kindness of strangers, including Zoe (Salomé Dewaels), a young single mother who claims to be a former classmate but of whom Nino has no recollection, and a sad-eyed widower (Mathieu Amalric) he encounters in a public bath house. It is in the presence of such people that he feels more at ease.
Like a Quebecois Barry Keoghan, Pellerin has largely become known for playing a series of creepy dudes. Nino affords the young actor a chance to show a different side, and he seizes the opportunity. His portrayal of the soft-spoken and shy Nino is quietly overwhelming. Nino is the sort of man other people feel comfortable around, what they might condescendingly call "a good listener," the bloke every girl wants to set their friend up with. But nobody really listens to Nino because he can't assert himself. Unlike some people who love to play the victim, Nino takes every setback with a "mustn't grumble" shrug, whether that's losing his keys or being diagnosed with a potentially fatal ailment. He puts others first, declining to break the news to his mother when he realises she is enjoying the company of her first "male visitor" since her husband passed. Seeing the distress on Zoe's face when he tells her of his situation, Nino immediately seeks to reassure her that he won't lose his hair.
There is a streak of absurdist humour running throughout Nino, with a couple of situations that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Informed that there is nowhere in the hospital for Nino to extract his semen in peace, he finds himself struggling to find an appropriate place to get the deed done. But having just received a cancer diagnosis doesn't exactly put one in the right frame of mind to knock one out. It's this "sometimes you just have to laugh" approach and Nino's glass is half full mentality that prevents Nino from becoming the sort of misery fest you might expect from such a scenario. The sad truth is that many of us will find ourselves in Nino's shoes at some point. Loquès' tender and sensitive film reminds us that such a diagnosis can either be viewed as the end or a new beginning.
Nino is in UK/ROI cinemas from June 19th.
