Trouble Every Day

Released Mar 1, 2002

1h 42m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

56%

61 Reviews

Tomatometer

54%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Scientist Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo) neglects his new bride (Tricia Vessey), instead spending their honeymoon searching for an old colleague who disappeared after a research paper he had written was discredited by the medical community. It turns out that Dr. Semeneau is living in obscurity in order to protect his wife (Béatrice Dalle), whom he keeps prisoner in a room with boards nailed across the doorway. The narrative unfolds the dark secret that drives each party.

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Critics Consensus

An erotic thriller dulled by a messy narrative.

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Cody Corrall

Chicago Reader

Denis treats this hunger the same as she does sex, all while commenting on, and flipping, normative gender power dynamics along the way...

Oct 8, 2021

Full Review

Amy Taubin

Village Voice

As messy in conception as in its bloody mise en scène, it's the first misstep in her career.

Oct 9, 2019

Full Review

Max Nelson

Film Comment Magazine

It's the kind of public self-exorcism a director can only get away with once in a career. And even at its most overdetermined, it still reflects its maker's signature love for intractable contrasts and unresolved ambiguities.

Nov 4, 2013

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

The film was lambasted on its original release for its excesses—it is filled with flesh and blood and hunger played as sexual appetite—but it is gorgeous and raw and primal, a mix of horror and erotica.

Oct 28, 2023

Full Review

Noah Berlatsky

Everything is Horrible (Substack)

I find it easier to appreciate the movie as shallow bad taste—or as playing with, and near, and around shallow bad taste. The film, in other words, is an exercise in camp, which drenches its melodrama in blood, and its blood in knowing melodrama.

Jul 9, 2023

Full Review

Isaac Feldberg

Rue Morgue Magazine

Trouble Every Day treats cannibalism as a transgressive allegory for some hidden, innermost, all-consuming hunger.

Feb 6, 2023

Full Review

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Jeffrey P

Doesn't come together as anticipated and no big surprise or twist occurs to fill that void which leaves it a bit unclear at times. Just another day in the life of cannibals, I guess.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/11/23

Full Review

John A

Occasionally the imagery is absorbing and it feels like the film is headed somewhere significant but its kinda all for almost nothing.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/01/23

Full Review

Wayne K

A famous example of the French Extremity Movement, which is not in fact a form of exercise, but a series of films loosely connected by their boundary pushing violence, gore and sexual content. Among the most infamous would be Martyrs and Irréversible, and while TID is nowhere near as graphic as either of them, it still definitely lands in the ballpark. With a more pensive tone and slower pace, it sets itself up to be a rumination on… well I'm not sure exactly. For me, it was a film where the pieces were there, but they never ending up fitting together. It's got some interesting characters and intriguing ideas, but there's so little forward momentum that many of them are undeveloped or unexplored. When one of the principal characters dies, and with 25 odd minutes left, the plot goes from being muddled to meandering and the rest of the film is hollow and dramaless as a result. I liked Vincent Gallo's performance, likely since he's given the most to do. The other characters just orbit around his story arc, with little agency of their own. I admire the unrestrained approach it took towards the sex and violence, but the pacing, story structure and overall tone just left me feeling nothing.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

10/14/23

Full Review

mueler k

I am interested in characters. This movie is not. An empty feeling movie with a strange take on sexual dynamics.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

william d

For most of this movie I was thinking, "What the hell's going on?" (Well, I was also thinking, "Why doesn't that guy get a haircut?", but I'll admit that's really not germane here.) By the end of the movie I was thinking, "That's it?"

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This gem of a Horror film from Claire Denis is as clever – if not more so – than you've probably already heard. "Trouble Every Day" isn't all that riveting or attractive…which is the film's central point, (or so this reviewer believes to be its point). The biggest criticisms levied against it back when it first came out only substantiate the revelation: no, none of it is particularly realistic and the characters don't really draw a ton of intrigue — but it's not all that interesting, either. And once you realize this, the film just sort of assembles itself in front of you. In all of its simple — and a bit gory — glory. (N'est pas?)

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

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Claire Denis

Director

Vincent Gallo

Shane Brown

Tricia Vessey

June Brown

Béatrice Dalle

Coré

Alex Descas

Léo

Florence Loiret-Caille

Christelle

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Synopsis

Scientist Shane Brown (Vincent Gallo) neglects his new bride (Tricia Vessey), instead spending their honeymoon searching for an old colleague who disappeared after a research paper he had written was discredited by the medical community. It turns out that Dr. Semeneau is living in obscurity in order to protect his wife (Béatrice Dalle), whom he keeps prisoner in a room with boards nailed across the doorway. The narrative unfolds the dark secret that drives each party.

Director: Claire Denis
Screenwriter: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
Distributor: Lot 47 Films
Production Co: Mutual, Universal/Universal Int
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 1, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 25, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $9.2K
Runtime: 1h 42m