Directed by Patrice Leconte

In this light, utterly French look at unlikely sexual attraction and evolving relationships, Fabrice Luchini plays William, a polite, lugubrious tax advisor, into whose office one day steps the beautiful Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire), mistaking it for that of his neighbouring psychotherapist's. Before he realises the mistake (funny how marital problems can sound so like tax problems) she has revealed more than he really wants to know about the state of her marriage, and he hasn't the nerve to explain.

Anna continues to visit, even after she learns of her mistake, taking comfort in his listening. Meanwhile, unspoken, his fondness is growing, even when her husband comes to call and later pulls a nasty stunt. Luchini gives a delightful performance, enhanced for this viewer by his occasional and unnerving resemblance to Tony Blair in a certain light.

There are many quietly comic moments - William dancing with delight to himself, the concierge watching an increasingly ludicrous soap opera, jokes at the expense of the psychotherapist, who is portrayed as a gruff money grabber - and the only ‘cure‘ we see of a patient of his is effected in no-nonsense fashion by the kindhearted Anna.  But there are also longueurs, giving us a little too much, perhaps, of the silences and hesitancy between the two tentative protagonists.

As in Leconte's L'Homme Du Train, where the effect of two delicate performances was marred by a heavy-handed underlining of the symbolism of the ending, so here Leconte seems to be struggling to know when to stop. At least two acceptable resolutions, both fairly bleak, come along and get overtaken by the extended final coda. It's as if he can't bear to let go and leave his characters unhappy.

Tyneside Cinema, July 2004

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