User Reviews

In this brilliant romantic tragedy a solid woman Sara (Juliette Binoche) is torn between her committed lover Jean (Vincent Lindon) and her wild former passion Francois (Gregoire Colin).

The film opens on Sara's idyllic seaside holiday with Jean and ends with her left alone, a victim of her own emotions, her lover's selfishness and - as if all that were not enough - mischance. A lifetime of womanly obedience ends in dashed loves and a dark solitude.

The scenes of intimacy and conflict stand up to anything in Bergman. The predominantly low string score tightens the lovers' tension throughout.

As this is a Claire Denis film the romantic plot is given a political correlative. As one of Sara's radio interviewees cites Fritz Fanon, racism is a psychological problem because it is rooted in locked-in identities. So are the three central lovers. When Francois resurfaces as Jean's business partner and Sara's disaster, she tries to negotiate between her two lovers. She is ultimately betrayed by one man and her own compulsiveness.

The political theme also involves 15-year-old Marcus, Jean's black son from his marriage to a Martinique woman. Jean tries to save the despairing teen from letting himself be defined by the dominant white society and resigned to servitude. That's Sara's struggle too. The epilogue is a pallid, lifeless scene of Jean and Marcus at a juvenile rugby practice, their spirit lost.

I love Juliette Binoche! I run to see her movies because I find she can do marvelous things with her face,voice and body She is a sensitive and intelligent actrice that can enhance even a mediocre scenario... Usually....normally...but this one was hopeless!!

Not even Vincent Lindon (that was the most constructed of the charecters)couldn't!!

The story starts with a cliché of loving holidays(you know swimming like dolphins,sun,bodies under water free...etc) Then follows a story that was meant to be heavy about a loving relationship that gets mingled in a passionate ex relationship of the women...a story badly constructed,poor,and...incapable of sounding real or. Touching For people in their 50,s the dialogues seemed stupid and the love scenes overplayed and childish I wonder how Juliette feels when she hears herself screaming « mon amour « for 3 minutes!!!

Overall..I was sorry for my waisted evening and for Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon!!

(SPOILER ALERTS) This movie was infuriating. After it's done, you begin to analyze it and pull it apart (SPOILER ALERT). The bottom line is that François was a deeply insecure man. He couldn't have Sara because he know she was too good for him. He knew he would lose her and that she would eventually leave him. So, he did the cowardly thing and left her first, leaving her with the illusion of love. When she finally found a good thing with solid as a rock Jean, François could not handle the fact that she moved on, because he was deeply obsessed with her still, but knew he was such a loser, he could never really have her, so he set about to sabotage her happiness. He could not stand that she and Jean were happy. I think he probably, as an good narcissist would, thought that Jean would come around and continue to work with him, but if he didn't, it was a risk he was willing to take, so long as he tore Jean and Sara apart, and made Sara deeply wounded and unhappy and ALONE, just where he wanted her.

I could scream at how irritating and stupid Sara was. She couldn't see his ruse?? Ugh. Dumb. She was DUMB that when you muse about the movie after it's over, you know there is no way that Jean would ever take her back somewhere down the road after how she betrayed him with such a snake. Indeed, Jean moved on, as we see in the very very end. Went home to raise his boy (which is probably what he should have done in the first place) and never looked back.

François, the narcissist that he is, undoubtedly never thought twice about letting Jean go as a partner, nor about Sara except for some sick satisfaction that he ruined her life and likely any chance she would ever find happiness in love again. And Sara is left to spend the rest of her miserable life regretting what she did to Jean, and that she was too dang stupid to see what she had when she had him. It's the kind of scenario where in 5-8 years she will call him out of the blue, and ask him for coffee, during which she will smile, and try to be charming and win him back slowly, but Jean, being the solid as a rock kind of guy, will have already found a woman who was his equal, and who respected him and was probably at home pregnant with his child. He would feel sorry for Sara and bid her farewell and good luck, leaving Sara alone for the rest of her pathetic life. That's what you get when you cheat on a man devoted to you, then lie and gaslight him. She didn't deserve Jean. She actually deserved François and whatever he dished out to her because she was as weak and of low character as François was. I mean, seriously, she was ALL OVER HIM every time she saw François, right in front of Jean. And he was a big baby when she refused to let her have it up the hoohoo. How can you be so stupid that you wouldn't look at every action and behavior and think NARCISSIST! And run in the opposite direction. She got when she deserved when he told Jean all about their stupid, unfulfilling tryst. (She was so dumb she tried to lie to Jean about it! Ugh. Totally did NOT deserve Jean).

Yes, Jean made some mistakes, but he was still a solid dude with a good heart and would never hurt Sara. I wish they had gone into more detail about his prison sentence, and also, given a little bit of cake with an ending where years later Sara and Jean would meet, and he would indeed be happy and in love and in a relationship with another woman, a strong one, and have a new business and a happy family and a happy son from his first marriage. Basically, I wanted them to meet and have his life turn out so well, that he would say 'I'm glad that you were such a disgusting person, because it led me to my new and fabulous life!' leaving her to wallow. (Can you tell I hated Sara?? Lol).