this is one of those fine movies that, for some freak of distribution or marketing or whatnot, is overlooked by the press and gets no respect. but i liked it very much indeed.
it is a girl movie in the sense that all my girl friends and all their girl friends like it, but not in that it is boring or sentimental or verbose, so bear with me, dear male friends. (it is by a female director -- anne fontaine -- but i didn't know that before i saw the movie, and i wouldn't have guessed).
the movie probably does not ring a bell, as neither does the director, but how about this cast: fanny ardant, gerard depardieu, emmanuelle béart? (i know mc, you dislike depardieu but his is really good in this movie: funny, soft, conflicted -- he gives a great performance as a lovable and hateable philanderer). fanny ardant is in my book one of the most charming and beautiful women in our lifetime and though she is over 50, she is none the worse for wear. and béart: probably the most sexy thing alive (and i do mean "thing" when i say it, because her beauty is at once superhuman, and alien).
but i am getting ahead of myself. since i hate to write synopses, let me quote from the imdb:
Nathalie is the name a Parisian prostitute assumes for a special mission or "private investigation." She is engaged for this unusual, and secretive task by a professional, upper middle class wife who fears her husband is unfaithful to her. Nathalie has to seduce the clueless husband and regularly report all details of her relationship with him, including his most intimate sexual preferences in bed. Nathalie is stunning, charming and cunning. Can Nathalie and her reports to the mistrustful wife be trusted? Is the middle aged husband indeed unfaithful?
with this kind of plot, this could be a horribly sleazy film, or a clumsy and moralistic story about family values and the importance of being honest, but it is not.
you see (and because the acting is so great, the storytelling so precise, you feel) how the wife suffers. but instead of shouting out her hurt, she decides to try to gain knowledge through her suffering -- knowledge of her husband, of her marriage, of sex, and of sexy young things who are powerless without sex.
in the end, the wife is triumphant despite, or perhaps because, her chosen methods are perverse.
to use unusual or perverse methods for the objective of gaining knowledge: isn't this typically pax acidus?
