‘Peaceful’ (2022) Review: Medical Drama Misses the Emotional Expectations
Emmanuelle Bercot’s Peaceful is a medical drama that follows a passionate theatre teacher in his late thirties, who finds out that he has cancer. Benjamin (Benoit Magimel) struggles to accept the diagnosis and his imminent death. It’s a moving drama that shows the main protagonist going through the stages of grief and finding acceptance, while also having to tie loose ends from his past to gain a sense of peace. Death has the power to grant forgiveness and bring empathy into people’s lives. Peaceful explores how the characters surrounding Benjamin deal with his cancer and imminent death.
Benjamin is a 39-year-old self-proclaimed “failed actor” turned theatre teacher, who learns of his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. When Benjamin’s mother, Crystal (Catherine Deneuve) is informed of her son’s terminal illness, she is stricken with grief and heartache. Over the course of four seasons, Benjamin’s health deteriorates and Crystal must face the fact that she will outlive her son. Benjamin’s passionate oncologist, Dr Eddé (Gabriel Sara), is determined to help his patient accept the inevitable journey of death. While Benjamin slowly accepts his imminent death, Crystal is willing to do anything to mend some broken fences and bring happiness back to her son’s life.
Peaceful attempts to explore the angle of the mother, who deals with her son’s death. However, the movie dives into other segments that don’t let the movie from being an emotional-driven story. Throughout the movie, doctors and nurses from the oncology department share stories of their patients succumbing to their deaths after a long diagnosis and how they deal with it. There’s nothing wrong with exploring the emotions of other characters but because it focuses on these elements, the movie’s central conflict gets muddled. Benjamin is the central character, along with Crystal and Dr Eddé, the latter who helps his patient to ease his inevitable journey and make peace with the people around him. It’s a clear view of what medical professionals do for their terminally ill patients to make the passage from life to death easier for them. Eventually, the overloaded segments of the doctors’ stories get lost and Benjamin’s emotions are put aside to make room for everyone else around him
Perhaps Peaceful would have been better if it had explored Crystal’s point of view alongside Benjamin. The realisation that her only son will die and she will outlive him takes a toll on her mental health. Even when she tries to comfort her son, he responds coldly and seems irritated by his overbearing mother. Crystal’s emotions would have been a compelling perspective that drives the story. Exploring how she feels about her son’s cancer diagnosis, his inevitable death, and reaching out to lost loved ones are universal experiences of life. It’s all about finding peace before death. Peaceful could have been much better if the movie explored Crystal’s internal life. But since the movie is overstuffed with subplots and expository devices to explain the illness to the characters, these emotionally-driven scenes just get lost in these moments.
There’s no doubt that Peaceful is a straightforward and harrowing experience of Benjamin struggling with a terminal illness. The movie never shies away from showing his pain. But it struggles to identify emotional moments within the narrative. While Bercot’s heart is in the right place, the movie doesn’t reach a point of catharsis that is strong enough to hold the resolution together. Benjamin’s inevitable journey of death keeps dragging on for almost two hours and the movie feels like an overstretched episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Peaceful prepares for the worst moment but when the story reaches that point, it fails to live up to that moment of emotional and heartfelt expectations that the story was hoping to achieve.
