In three words: Sophisticated, sexy, smart. In one sentence: What a script!
This is s very daring film. It actually imagines that the person watching is paying attention and willing to be enthralled by an exceedingly clever story. If you are seeing it at home then don't go and grab something from the fridge without hitting the pause button. If you do you won't understand it at all. You can't miss anything, right from the seemingly unimportant opening scene in a jewelers shop on the phallocentric Place Vendome (think Freud via Hitchcock) with an exposition on three engagement rings, up until the credits. This film will take you one way, double back on itself, then dig an escape tunnel right under your nose. You can't tell much of the plot without giving some of the game away so as to the story let me only say this: The worldly Max (Vincent Cassel) is about to be engaged to Muriel (Sandrine Kiberlain). He is also heading off to Japan on a business trip and prior to catching his plane makes a visit to a café and overhears a voice speaking on the telephone who he suspects is a woman he once knew: Lisa (Monica Bellucci),. This triggers an old obsession in him and instead of taking his flight he follows a trail of clues in the hope of finding this former love. We are treated to his relationship with her in flashback. But if you think you know what is going on don't rest on your laurels. A third and even a forth strand of the story will be revealed to you (but not to Max) in poignant fashion. Think of Hitchcock's Rear Window and Vertigo crossed with Kurosawa's Rashomon and treat yourself to having the action happen in Paris with the achingly beautiful Monica Belluci, a passionate Romane Bohringer and that unwitting, lucky bastard Vincent Cassel who gets to smooch with both of them. There is a slight misjudgement in pace two thirds through but keep watching as you can't take for granted where the story will go. And as it seems Vincent Cassel is on the brink of making a second grand career on this side of the Atlantic this is an excellent place to start your homework on the man.
This is s very daring film. It actually imagines that the person watching is paying attention and willing to be enthralled by an exceedingly clever story. If you are seeing it at home then don't go and grab something from the fridge without hitting the pause button. If you do you won't understand it at all. You can't miss anything, right from the seemingly unimportant opening scene in a jewelers shop on the phallocentric Place Vendome (think Freud via Hitchcock) with an exposition on three engagement rings, up until the credits. This film will take you one way, double back on itself, then dig an escape tunnel right under your nose. You can't tell much of the plot without giving some of the game away so as to the story let me only say this: The worldly Max (Vincent Cassel) is about to be engaged to Muriel (Sandrine Kiberlain). He is also heading off to Japan on a business trip and prior to catching his plane makes a visit to a café and overhears a voice speaking on the telephone who he suspects is a woman he once knew: Lisa (Monica Bellucci),. This triggers an old obsession in him and instead of taking his flight he follows a trail of clues in the hope of finding this former love. We are treated to his relationship with her in flashback. But if you think you know what is going on don't rest on your laurels. A third and even a forth strand of the story will be revealed to you (but not to Max) in poignant fashion. Think of Hitchcock's Rear Window and Vertigo crossed with Kurosawa's Rashomon and treat yourself to having the action happen in Paris with the achingly beautiful Monica Belluci, a passionate Romane Bohringer and that unwitting, lucky bastard Vincent Cassel who gets to smooch with both of them. There is a slight misjudgement in pace two thirds through but keep watching as you can't take for granted where the story will go. And as it seems Vincent Cassel is on the brink of making a second grand career on this side of the Atlantic this is an excellent place to start your homework on the man.