Film Review: Noémie Says Yes (Noémie Dit Oui)
by Pat Frickey

NOÉMIE SAYS YES (NOÉMIE DIT OUI)
Geneviève Albert, Canada 2022

Saying yes has brutal consequences for 15-year-old Noémie (Kelly Depeault). Waif-like, fragile, and angry she has spent the last three years in a youth detention center in Quebec and longs for nothing more than to return to live with her weak and pathetically helpless mother Edith (Myriam De Bonville). Edith strings Noémie along pretending to want her back home; but in the courtroom Edith rejects her. Edith’s motorcycle-riding boyfriend has all her affection. Noémie, heartbroken, bolts from the center and phones a former resident and friend Léa (Emi Chicoine) to pick her up. Suddenly she is transported into another world, from the bleak barrack-like institution to a glamorous penthouse with a stunning view of Montreal’s skyline. There she falls in love with cool, sweet, laid-back, and suspiciously attentive Zac (James Edward Métayer) who absolutely adores her. What more could a run-away want?

Noémie is encouraged by Léa to join her in her adventurous life as an escort. Noémie declines and seems a little unsettled witnessing Léa’s battered face after an argument with her boyfriend Slim. And Zach now begins his gentle crusade, promising her if she is an escort during the three-day Formula 1 Grand Prix, the two of them would have enough money to drive off together into the sunset. Never to return. At first, she resists. But Zac, the most endearing boyfriend ever, is craftily persuasive. Noémie gives in, she reluctantly says yes. The consequences are numbing.