At a taut 81 mins, this crisply shot two-hander is further proof of how modern French cinema consistently allows Scott Thomas opportunities to excel in psychologically challenging roles.
The film generates some interest by fragmenting the narrative structure but it’s really a potboiler without much heat.
Scott Thomas is getting peerless at this point: not only does she continue to get more beautiful as she ages but her brittle, ambiguous female protagonists conspicuously challenge the overarching convention for onscreen women to be either wholly ingratiating or out-and-out bad.
A short but insightful exploration of inverse Stockholm syndrome, loneliness and loss.
The material sadly isn’t deserving of [Kristin Scott Thomas's] committed performance.
It's an intense and claustrophobic two-hander, well acted...but frankly a bit of a shaggy-dog story with a faintly unsatisfactory ending.
Kristin Scott Thomas impresses, but the third act turns everything to mush.
Lola Doillon’s movie could have been stronger: it’s a brittle, single-track business, and a seemingly cramped context for Scott Thomas to strut her stuff in.
Scott Thomas hasn't a great deal to work with, though even within those confines she subtly conveys a character waking up to her own loneliness.
Scott Thomas and Marmai are both fine in a film that could almost be a theatrical two-hander but the plot just doesn’t hold water.
Insomniacs only.
The end is abrupt and not entirely satisfactory, but it's a convincingly performed and constantly intriguing film.
Lola Doilon's film brings some intriguing twists to a familiar story, and Scott Thomas turns in another elegant and commanding performance, but the story struggles to be convincing.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews