Intimate Strangers

2004, France, directed by Patrice Leconte (original title: Confidences trop intimes)

One of those movies that seemed to split the critics, I was surprised by both the raves and the pans. While Fabrice Luchini hasn't been this good in a long, long time (partly because no-one gives him a decent part), the film does drag in sections. There's a degree of repetition that allows you to reflect too long on the basic unlikeliness of the scenario (a woman walks into an accountant's office under the impression he's a psychologist and once her mistake is discovered, continues to show up for conversations with the nebbish tax expert). Still, as an exercise in style as much as anything else, the movie doesn't really care about suspension of disbelief, for it constructs its own very self-contained world, within which these characters make sense. Sandrine Bonnaire is rather pallid here; she can be fierce at times but here that fire is largely hidden by an underwritten role. Ultimately, a slight sense of disappointment hinges on the fact that Leconte has made at least a half-dozen very fine movies, and this one doesn't quite measure up.