REVIEW: Limited Enthusiasm for ‘No Limit’

No Limit (Sous Emprise) is a Netflix Original French-language dark romance written and directed by David M. Rosenthal about Roxana (Camille Rowe), a college dropout with a challenged past who falls in love with the mysterious and daring diving instructor and world record holder Pascal (Sofiane Zermani) who comes on to her fast and intensely, dragging her into his twisted need to be superior in the sport and their relationship.

It’s almost unfair to label No Limit as a romance, despite that being its official designation. Because not only is it not at all a happy story about love, it’s an unimaginative story about abuse. As a couple, you’re never for a moment lured into believing the two are in love with each other. Sure they have sex in some mildly intense scenes, and they go through some motions of romantic entanglement. But much of their relationship development, if it even happened at all, is skipped over and is marked pretty clearly by abusive behavior from the onset.

The subject of the film is handled fine. It’s not glorifying the abuse by any means and it isn’t terribly graphic either. It’s just banal. And ultimately, so is nearly everything else that happens around it. The characters are entirely flat, the diving drama is an interesting backdrop for sure, but even then the scenes are only visually interesting the first time or two. Do I find myself rooting for Roxana both to escape the abuse and to succeed in her own right as a diver? Of course, I’m not heartless. But because Pascal sucks all the life from her and her accomplishments, it also sucks all the excitement from watching. Is it a realistic depiction of how an abusive relationship drains you? Absolutely. Does it make for good entertainment in this case? Not particularly.

I did find myself marginally enamored with the diving. I will gladly give No Limit that. It’s a subject I’ve certainly never seen before and it gets described in pretty elaborate detail. The way several scenes take a lot of time to explain all of the details of the sport, the numerous iterations, the physiological aspects, and the safety precautions the divers’ teams take together is actually interesting. It’s a lot of exposition but it never feels droll. I enjoyed watching several different kinds of dives, record attempts, and scary situations. The only complaint I can make is, I mentioned, it does become visually repetitive. The dark depths of the ocean look the same after a while, and so does watching faceless divers go up and down and make hand signals at one another.

the most interesting part both dramatically and emotionally is the very end. It must be one of the most messed up endings to this type of film I’ve seen in a while. It gives no satisfaction, which isn’t a criticism, it’s an intentional choice, and constitutes some of the most dramatic action we actually witness the whole time. It’s an ending that will surely stick with me for a long time, even if the rest of the movie is rather forgettable.

Is it maybe worth enduring the whole two hours of No Limit just to witness its harrowing end? Maybe, if you don’t mind mildly interesting characters in a dark romance. Its diving backdrop is unique and kind of compelling on its own, but it doesn’t build nearly enough dramatic or emotional tension between or around its main characters to maintain my interest personally. It’s a realistic kind of tragedy, but realistic isn’t always interesting to watch on-screen.

No Limit is streaming now on Netflix.