[4] It stars Dario Argento as a father and author, in his first leading role,[5] alongside Françoise Lebrun as his wife, and Alex Lutz as their son, Stéphane.

The film deals with the themes of the human condition and personal problems, uses a slow, minimal cinematic approach and is almost defiantly restrained: a pockmarked, faded palette of the frame, deaf voices, and the use of low-frequency background sound.

Praise was given in particular for Noé's direction, Argento and Lebrun's performances, the film’s emotional power, scope, ambition and execution.

The couple, due to age and ill health, primarily his heart condition and her dementia, begins to drift further apart from each other and gradually loses contact with reality, as reflected in the film screen splitting into two separate ones between them.

He begs his parents to move to supervised housing with carers for her, but the husband does not want to sell their apartment, as he is afraid to lose his books and objects reminding him of the past.

[11][12] In his first leading role, Argento, who lives in Italy, learned to speak in fluent but heavily accented French, sometimes pausing and fumbling to find the right word.

The website's consensus reads, "Vortex is Gaspar Noé at his most unflinchingly pitiless -- but viewers who can make it through will be rewarded with a haunting contemplation of death.

Justin Chang, a top critic of the Los Angeles Times, praised the film and noted: "It’s a bone-deep sensory immersion that never feels merely sensationalist, anchored by two performances of astonishing commitment and emotional power.