Review of The Woman Next Door

Although not too extreme, this is a harsh and nearly sick movie about love. Or, to be more precise, the dark side of love. It starts off as a perfectly normal movie: an ordinary man named Bernard Coudray lives with his wife and his innocent son Thomas. This family leads a normal life, plus Bernard doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who looks for problems where they don't exist. That is, until Mathilde (an ex-lover) unexpectedly becomes his neighbor. Seemingly concerned with her presence, Bernard avoids her at first, but it doesn't take much time until their affair begins... a strange and completely crazy love affair, I'll say! Not even these two people understand their love/hate relationship. It's as if they can't be with each other and yet they can't be without each other.

Overall, an okay movie but far from being great. It affects you in some way, however, as most Truffaut's films do somehow. The most affecting part of this one is the tragic ending. The sick side of love in this movie alone is enough to make you fear falling in love but the ending definitely scares you off from that.

A young Gérard Depardieu stars here in one of his best actings and movie roles and, unlike in much later movies, here he is perfectly normal and doesn't overact and isn't annoying. Fanny Ardant is great too. Véronique Silver plays well the interesting character Madame Jouve and Olivier Becquaert is excellent as sweet little Thomas.