Every Denis Villeneuve Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

9. Maelstrom (2000)

Villeneuve's weirdest film to date turns out to be his worst, a drama about a woman (Marie-Josée Croze) who kills a man in a hit-and-run accident and gets romantically involved with his son.

Far from your typical art-house drama, Maelstrom is narrated by a sentient fish that repeatedly has its head chopped off by a butcher...for some reason.

Unfortunately this framing device feels more like a fanciful affectation than anything meaningful, but at least Croze gives a terrific central performance, which largely carries the film and keeps it watchable.

Far and away, though, this is Villeneuve's least-compelling effort to date, and perhaps ambitious to a fault.