It's been a year of would-be epics, films whose runtime alone creates an expectation that its content simply can't support. The Wolf Of Wall St is an obvious contender, despite the critical attention it has received. Another, though perhaps more rewarding, is Abdellatif Kechiche's romantic drama Blue Is The Warmest Colour. So smitten by his extraordinarily long exploration of new love, the Cannes jury awarded it an unprecedented trifecta – Best Actress awards for both its leads, plus Best Film by way of a Palm D'Or. While the former awards are entirely justified, it's difficult to see how this admittedly engaging film was fully deserving of the winner's gong.

Originally titled the Life Of Adele (La Vie d'Adele), Blue Is The Warmest Colour is the memorable story of a high school girl who first falls in love, then learns to love. The journey is explored in a series of performances pieces when Adele meets Thomas, drops Thomas, meets Emma, falls hopelessly in love, moves in and then, in turn, is thrown out and left to collect the pieces of her shattered life. It's grand drama played across a number of years, but spread thinly over three hours is simply not enough to sustain the epic love story many would have you believe it is.

It is however, a tour-de-force. Both Adele Exarchopoulos (Adele) and Léa Seydoux (Emma - Sister) are simply mesmerising as women whose passionate affair is rendered naked (metaphorically, figuratively and literally) by Kechiche. His willingness to hold the camera long after many directors would call cut allows the actresses to fully engage with their characters, and the audience. Exarchopoulus is particularly exciting who with every tic, every gesture, pout, smile and tear fulfils her role. There's no confusion about who Adele is as she transitions from needy high-school student to the tortured, and no less needy, school teacher. She's willing to be whatever Emma (a slightly older, much more centred, much more worldly artist) wants her to be. It's a powerful, if uneven, union.

Yet Kechiche's fondness for repetition soon becomes his Achilles. With each return to Adele's classroom he overstates the point he's trying to make. Every return to their bedroom (and there are many) renders the explicit, often beautiful nature of their sex scenes that much closer to voyeurism. One visit would make his point an eloquent one. This many become a distraction that makes you wonder exactly what his point is. Titillation? I don't believe so, but the circular storm he creates is an unfortunate miscalculation that over inflates the film, and our expectations along with it.

Despite the indulgence, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a daring film not because it's a lesbian love story, but because it's a story about love. This is one of the most honest movies you'll see about relationships simply because Kechiche turns off the filters as he hones in on the way we open up for another, then reveals the lengths we'll go to to keep them.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Paramount Theatrette, Sydney on 30 January 2014