The body swap trope is normally squeezed for comedic value, supplying laughs, antics, and ultimately innocuous entertainment (think Freaky Friday or 17 Again). Adapted from a graphic novel he created with his brother, Arthur Harari’s The Unknown presents all the negative consequences of being transferred into a stranger’s body, from the inconveniences to the loss of identity that would upend your life in a dispiriting and distressing fashion.
David (Niels Schneider) is a reclusive photographer who collects old photographs of places around Paris, juxtaposing those taken from the same spot decades apart. He visits the locations, taking his own photos to complete the installations, showing how the modern world has grown around these sites. These mini photographic timelines reveal how places transform, and what gets lost in time.
One night, his friends drag him to an underground party where, while disconnected from the noise around him, he notices a woman (played by Léa Seydoux) staring at him fixatedly through the crowd. In a bizarre sequence, he follows her, as if in a trance, into a dingy room where they have sex. Devoid of sensuality, there are glimpses of a strange, foreboding ferocity. When David wakes up, he discovers that he’s no longer David; he’s in the woman’s body. With the initial shock overcome, he sets out to find whoever now controls his body to reverse the process, but things only get stranger and murkier.
When watching a character portrayed by multiple actors within a film, you naturally look for signs that make this feel like the same person, whether that’s in the physical performance or the way they talk. This maintains the emotional connection you’ve developed with the character. In this case, our chance to grasp what David is like before the swap is brief, making it difficult to discern if Seydoux has captured the essence of the character in her performance beyond conveying David’s general diffidence and agitation. You have to constantly remind yourself that she is the bloke from the start.
The cause of the bewildering switch remains shrouded in shadowy mystery. Is this a curse, or some kind of twisted entity? The fact that the phenomenon occurs after sex evokes the central STD metaphor of It Follows, but where that film depicts an inescapable force that could be a few steps behind you at any moment, the threat in The Unknown is aptly elusive, leaving the protagonist alone with an existential dilemma. The film never pursues its faint signals of horror, nor does it develop its investigation plot that opens a pathway to potential answers before closing it off and veering in another direction. It chooses to invest in a particular, unexpected relationship, which grows into the heart of the film.
Disguised as someone else, David has the opportunity, or misfortune, to hear what his friends would say about him in his absence: that he’s fragile and normally invites sympathetic concern. The body swap is only exacerbating his insecurities and alienation. Could this be why he was preyed upon in the first place, if indeed it was targeted?
The assertion that the collapse of one’s identity, after the separation of the body and the soul, leads to alienation and despair is communicated early on. From here, the film meanders and gets stuck in the mud. You might expect a more laser-focused narrative from the Oscar-winning co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall. And for a film based on a graphic novel, with a foundation of striking images to draw on, its visual style is disappointingly dreary and uninspired. There’s lots of potential here: the intriguing premise, the opportunity to examine identity, the talent of Léa Seydoux. If only Harari could guide it towards something more substantial.
