Lucie presumes that her husband Paul - an older neurosurgeon - has an affair. Indeed, Paul behaves strange lately, but the truth behind it is dark and complicated.
It’s a rather odd film: excellent performances, a convincing milieu, and then a final twist that is so improbable that all Claudel's careful work seems undone.
Slow to ignite, but watchable if you are intrigued by elegant French living, menopausal men or arguing about denouements all the way home.
Though there’s plenty of thoughtful meditation, there’s also the faint whiff of middle-aged wish fulfilment. The result is elegant if frosty, and just a touch too long in the tooth.
Philippe Claudel’s slow-burning thriller boasts a superlative performance from Daniel Auteuil as a man in late middle age on the verge of a breakdown.
The all-important chill is tepid.
Before The Winter Chill often feels more of a melancholy character study than a thriller. When it delivers on that intrigue with a completely unexpected denouement, you realise it has been cleverly structured and perfectly executed.
Sophisticated themes lose their way in a brutal third act.
Though the set-up hints at Auteil’s masterful collaboration with Michael Haneke in Hidden, the revelations that lie behind this sinister-seeming intrusion on his character’s rather bourgeois life prove much more generic and mundane.
With its chilly visual sheen and sharp bourgeois satire, this handsomely mounted and consistently well-played yarn offers disposable pleasures and rewarding intrigue.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday May 30, 2014, until Thursday June 5, 2014. More info: www.dca.org.uk