A weird film that sadly becomes a dull one, Aline traces the life of Québécois singer Aline Dieu—identified as Céline Dion in every other respect—since her birth until now. That sounds like any old musical biopic because it is, but the major twist to this movie comes from its nearly 60-year-old director Valérie Lemercier who portrays the revered artist at every stage of her life starting from age five. In fact, Lemercier herself is a confessed admirer of Dion hence making the whole thing feel more like an incredibly misguided act of devotion where hero worship and self-worship are equated as easily as a couple of time jumps between each two different periods in Dieu’s adult life with no clear links between them.
Lemercier on the other hand co-wrote this script with Brigitte Buc and seems to be into mythologizing Dion such that she begins her tale in 1932 which is 36 years before Celine was even born. The “rags” part of this “rags-to-riches” story has some charm thanks to Dieu’s large family and its very personable actors representing each one — Sylvette (Danielle Fichaud) and Anglomard (Roc Lafortune), her parents; Jean-Bobin (Antoine Vézina), her music industry brother; and twelve older kids — but everything gets really bizarre when the singer appears. Suddenly, Lemercier’s grown up head pops up from under a makeshift stage with an eerie smile while cutting quickly to an inverse shot revealing a child double body just like Frodo in The Lord of Rings.
This is also when the illusion first gets some decent art – or perhaps the only time that there is meaningful artistry behind it all other than being terribly distracting. But if not for its central uncanny event about which the movie appears to be playing a game of peekaboo, we are next shown Dieu wailing as a youngster in long shots that keep zooming nearer with every cut almost unveiling Lemercier’s horrible change: her 55-year-old head digitally attached onto a preschooler’s body. Throughout this part, there are few instances when the director enters using her own body like Peter Jackson’s use of forced perspective where Elijah Wood seems minuscule but is seen alongside Ian McKellan who is huge; yet the overall staging and shooting become so aimlessly done that Sylvette and Anglomard usually do not seem at their monstrous baby straight facedly. On one hand, if Lemercier was telling a story about an ugly kid bullied all along, but nope, that is just one element of Dion’s mythology she decides to leave out as well. In Dieu’s view (which coincidentally means “God” in French), Dion is therefore her God with whom she never meets despite actually assuming her role.
What made her decision to play Dieu at all ages so weird was its long-term narrative impact. During the course of years, while other characters undergo significant aging with help of commendable make-up, Dieu only changes in size. Moreover, this leaves the central plot feeling rather distasteful. For example, when she was twelve and met her husband and manager (René Angélil) much older than her, Dion’s story is similar to that of Dionysus who first met his wife Ariadne when he was fourteen. Likewise, Dieu meets Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel) in a small adult-looking grandpa-like teenager that seems like she’s been reading Lolita too many times at 20.
Thus it is Guy-Claude who becomes creepier still as the film depicts him not as a perverted stalker but as a lover while René Angélil looks more like one given his age difference from Céline Dion. This perspective does not only reverse our habit of judging René Angélil but also disrupts our stereotypes about him. As opposed to this individualistic opinion of the author who clearly emphasizes on ‘my’ father while discussing three fathers including René, there are many people who have influenced Celine’s life including those who are currently living.
In each case-story beat being little more than a Tetris piece designed to fit snugly into Dion’s flat jigsaw puzzle which has been highly publicized and successful in telling stories since Guy-Claude appears for the very first time until it is certain that love will bloom. Most notably Lemercier chooses not to place herself at the center of the camera well during Aline’s final scenes despite playing none other than Aline herself.
The first couple hours avoid these childish traits but later include denial and immaturity which are common among young adults like Diue now a 25-year-old woman will be given to her 5-year-old counterpart.
Events like pregnancies, illnesses, births and deaths are stripped of their drama and flattened into narrative inconveniences usually imparted through fragments or suggestions rather than any real action because Lemercier does not wish to portray genuine emotions as she does in the case of her idol which is pop music.
Occasionally Dieu cries during an interview or breaks down under pressure from touring. These brief parts of the plot have been borrowed from Dion’s life and they seem to show that Lemercier has made a mistake in trying to tell this story. However, backstage represents the reality while on stage seems to be less important than the lights she has lived with since being young Dion.
Even moments like these which involve Dieu can’t be said to betray ignorance towards her feelings. French singer Victoria Sio impersonates Dion’s singing voice remarkably well, but there is never a scene where Dieu achieves something great as an artist and basks in it nor any huge obstacle for her to overcome professionally. Instead, they are things that were done either by or around her. Her role here is passive though not one that overlaps meaningfully with the subplot about how she comes up with her daily timetable.
All major life events take place separately without having much effect on Diue per se as a person throughout scenes. The only thing that matters about them is when they occurred during her discography; no musician’s cinematic biography appeared so much like his/her Wikipedia page since Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me from 2017.
For every bit of capable editing — for every joyous instant in which Dieu’s family is taken by surprise or disappointed, and the emotions expressed are matched by the camera’s movement inwards or outwards — there are twelve more choices that might make one doubt whether Lemercier understands visual language at all. At a time when Dieu must not use her vocal cords and writes messages on napkins instead of speaking, the director dramatizes through a montage of shrinking stack of napkins just how serious this is. She also employs comparable methods to suggest the passing of time during happier spells like when she was pregnant, giving birth to her first child, and raising him. After that point everything about Dieu’s life happens with the same matter-of-factness; as put by Macho Man Randy Savage, it means nothing though Dion is cream of the crop.
Celine Dion’s rise to worldwide recognition through “My Heart Will Go On”, from Titanic appears to be over before we know it.
It takes 105 minutes for Lemercier to introduce an even remotely interesting dramatic idea — that while performing onstage Dieu has her music in one earpiece and husband in another — which he then proceeds to visualize particularly thoughtfully, from Guy-Claude’s perspective at a tough period in their lives. The concept only works within context divorced from the rest of the film because so little of it really occurs from Dieu’s point-of-view despite being almost always around but this is homogenized into goop by assimilation much like everything else here. The first half hour of Aline may be macabrely absorbing; however; apart from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story parodying it years earlier its just another musical biopic.
Verdict:
Aline might as well have been a Céline Dion biopic if only due its 55-year-old director playing French Canadian singer Aline Dieu at every stage of her life starting from five. It is an extremely weird piece of idolatry that starts off as an insane collection of strange visual effects and then turns into a distant and disjointed retelling of Dion’s life։
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