‘Passages’ review: Passion and toxicity collide in latest complex romantic drama from Ira Sachs | Sundance

From the moment we meet Tomas (Franz Rogowski), he is in full control. He is shooting his latest film, directing his lead actor to walk down the stairs the way he wants to, yelling at extras for not having their beverages full in the background. He is an obsessive, worrisome artist who seeks the perfection of others to balance the vision in his head so that the film is a success. His comfort lies in getting his way, manipulating everything within his power to bend to his wants and needs. But this is just his work life, and throughout the rest of Ira Sachs’s latest film, Passages, we see that beyond a set, his life is out of control.

Tomas is married to Martin (Ben Whishaw, Women Talking and also Bad Behaviour at Sundance 2023), a graphic designer with whom he shares a home in Paris. They’ve built a routine life together; going to dinners with friends, returning home, reading, and falling asleep without a hint of intimacy. At the after party following the last day of filming for Tomas’s new film, the distance between the two lovers that has been growing for quite some time gets wider. This bond is tested to the limits when they meet Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color) the night of the party, a young French girl whom Tomas becomes fascinated by. As their bodies move in sequence on the dance floor, you feel the passion growing between Tomas and Agatha, as it is ready to explode at any minute. So when Martin decides to go home because he has an early wakeup call the following morning, and he denies Tomas’s advances and companionship, Tomas ends up going to the after party and sleeping with Agathe later that night, his first sexual experience with a woman either ever or in a really long time.

Most films at this point would hide this revelation, building tension of this affair all the way to the end credits. But Sachs and his co-writer Mauricio Zacharias aren’t making that kind of film, and Tomas is unlike any character we’ve seen in this situation before because the next morning when he arrives back into his apartment, he tells Martin about his affair with Agathe, speaking of it as some revelation to him. This brutal honesty and disregard for how he is presenting this news is alarming at first but it is in keeping with the selfish nature Tomas is accustomed to handling people he encounters with, even his own husband. Martin is, understandably, at a complete loss of words, but Tomas keeps pressing him about the idea that this has woken something up inside. This indication of Tomas’s bi-sexual awakening can come off as liberating for him but soul crushing to his partner, who sees this as the final straw in finally putting an end to their relationship once and for all.

As one door closes, another one opens as Tomas, free of Martin, explores this new side of himself with Agathe. This is not only the first relationship outside of his marriage but it is the first time he’s ever had one with a woman. In their initial interactions as a new couple lies the subtle honesty about how straight and gay relationships are different from one another, and how this isn’t going to be as smooth of a transition as Tomas thought it would be. Everything unravels for Tomas, who fell in love with Agathe through multiple physical, sexual interactions, and now he finds himself in a standard straight relationship, needing to learn her tendencies and desires, and it both scares and bores him. Without putting any real effort in, he cowers away from his new responsibilities and tries to run back into the arms of Martin, even proclaiming to his former lover how much he misses being gay.

In his time away from his husband, Martin has explored his own path to find emotional happiness, having a new fling begin with a novelist named Ahmad (Erwan Kepoa Falé). This is a chance for Martin to have a life beyond his ex but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t escape the history both men created with each other. When they start fooling around again, he shuts out this new fling and allows his heart to be hurt by something familiar rather than something new no matter how foolish this may be. But is a puppet on a string, wrapped around Tomas’s finger as he is the ultimate power hungry manipulator looking to have his cake and eat it too, trying to be with both his former husband and his new lover at the same time. In another impeccable performance, Rogowski fully embraces the toxicity and cunningness that lies inside of Tomas, as he is a man trying to grasp for control in two partnerships at the same time without really knowing if he wants either one of them. With Tomas, alongside his stellar work in Great Freedom, Rogowski has delivered two fantastic, layered performances that complement each other in both the internal and external emotions of what it means to be a queer man.

Sachs, who’s made a living out of making fantastically complex films about relationship dynamics between straight and gay couples (most notably The Delta, Keep the Lights On and Love is Strange), blends the best of what’s made his career work so far but takes things down a darker, dangerous turns with this feature. Tomas, while stable in areas he can control like on a film set or when he is in the editing room, is a time bomb of mixed emotions in his love life. Instead of being able to talk it out with Agathe or Martin, he avoids his problems with sex and is too egotistical and devilish to care about the damage he has caused until it is too late.

In the aftermath of his lies and self-serving agenda, we find sympathy in the understated yet radiant performances from Exarchopoulos and Whishaw, who both are victims of a lover who is more in love with himself, his opinions, his art, and his body than actually being with either one of them. By delving into his complicated yet selfish compulsions, Passages dives right into the emotional seesaw Tomas is inflicting on others around him, leaving glaring wounds on the heart and soul that will never heal. In doing so, Sachs has created another exceptional piece of challenging, powerful storytelling on human connection and the dangerous web love can trap us in.

Grade: B+

Passages is screening in the Premieres section of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. MUBI will distribute the film theatrically.

Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute | Guy Ferrandis / SBS PRODUCTIONS