Intimate Strangers
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Movie Reviews of Intimate Strangers
Movie Review: Moderately Succesful if not all that Riveting
Summary: 3 Stars
This film has a premise that sounds like the beginning of a joke: a girl walks into a tax attorneys office thinking she has entered her psychoanalysts office. The problem is that the joke never really takes off, and it takes a long time to tell. As a result I found myself waiting in vain for something momentous to happen, or some momentous twist to occur, or something that resembles a punchline, but ultimately all of the mysterious Hitchcockian atmospherics (eerie mystery music, strangers appearing and disappearing, misunderstandings & miscommunications, lots of shots down hallways, odd characters with odd obsessions/compulsions)are for nought. That's not to say this film does not have some things going for it. For me the best character was the real psychoanalyst down the hall (the one the girl was trying to see when she entered the tax attorneys office) who advises the tax-attorney-pretend-psychoanalyst to give up on the idea of mastering situations. This is actually probably good advice and probably the kind of advice you would expect to get from a man who has long accepted the idea that psychoanalysts are just there to listen and that the psychoanalytic situation itself is therapeutic. But its also funny because the real psychonalyst is a jaded pro who's heard it all. His odd attempt at Freudian humor (part Freudian slip, part juvenalia) is the funniest bit in the film, and his lines about "payment being part of the therapy" and "female pleasure being frightening to men" are delivered with ice cold seriousness. Its obvious to this "real" psychoanalyst that the tax attorney has his own problems to work through and that he is growing to depend on his visitor-patient as much as she depends on him. If you're ok with just watching two people attempt to sort out their lives for 1 hr. and 44 min. then you may find this film interesting. If you're looking for something with more thrills then this will probably disappoint.
The tax attorney William (Fabrice Luchini) is, in moments anyway, vividly imagined by director Patrice Leconte and even though the interloper Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) has an endless collection of now steamy, now tragic anecdotes to tell about herself its really not Anna that we are interested in but the effects Anna's tales have on William. Both William and Anna are in or have just been in unsatisfying relationships and both seem to feel empowered by the other to pursue something better. Anna is still young enough to make life changes and pursue a dream she has had since childhood; the question for William (who has never really left his childhood home nor his childhood) is whether he is capable of imagining a life outside of his tax office routines. Its ultimately a film that some may view as sad and others may view as touching and very human and maybe even sweet. For me the peripheral characters really provide a much needed break form William and Anna (Williams verbal jabs at his ex's new boyfriend are very funny-- rare bits of comic agression for William). Patrice Leconte seems to enjoy teasing viewers into believing that they are going to get a Hitchcockian mystery and then giving them something a little more substantial, if also a little less thrilling, than that.
This film has a few quirky moments that I really enjoyed and that made me think of my favorite Leconte films, Monsieur Hire & Hairdressers Husband. Unfortunatley the film has far too few of these and it moves much too lethargically to really elicit more than a moderate approval rating. Competent if not very inspired film making.
Patrice Leconte:
1989 Monsieur Hire *
1990 Hairdresser's Husband *
1996 Ridicule
1999 Girl on the Bridge
2000 Widow of Saint-Pierre *
2002 Man on a Train
*My favorites. Others are good too though. Intimate Stangers is probably my least favorite Leconte film but Leconte is a favorite director so I still found it worth my while.
Movie Review: A minor diversion from a major director
Summary: 3 Stars
Patrice Leconte is one of my favorite directors, but first time round I found Confidences Trop Intimes little more than a pleasant but disposable diversion despite the promise held by his reunion with his Monsieur Hire star Sandrine Bonnaire. Surprisingly, although slightly disappointing on a first viewing, I found it held up remarkably well on a second viewing.
In some ways a sly reversal of Last Tango, in which two characters meet to talk rather than to screw, the limitations I noticed first time round still hold true: it's more a conceit than a movie, a character piece that never goes anywhere much but holds the interest. Bonnaire, previously not a favorite actress of mine, is increasingly impressive in a superb performance that really does evolve throughout the course of the film, easily outclassing Fabrice Lucini. Always a rather one-note actor, Lucini is at his best here, but the fact that his character is incapable of growth - even the final move is more a change of surroundings than of character and can actually be viewed as a retrograde step - makes him more of a sounding board for Bonnaire than a real focus for the film. Coming across as a somber Eric Idle cross-pollinated with a hesitant Jean-Louis Trintignant, we know everything about him very early in the film, and he is never quite drawn out of his shell enough to ever become genuinely interesting in his own right.
Despite the claustrophobic settings, Leconte never fails to make the film cinematic, his mastery of the Scope frame making what could have just been a chamber piece into a surprisingly rich experience. In many ways he's like Sidney Lumet in his prime in his ability to find a way of making two characters sitting down and talking to each other more cinematic than most directors can make a street scene. Unfortunately, it doesn't amount to much by the time the end credits are rolling. A minor film from a major director, but it's best not to go in expecting too much.
Movie Review: Intriguing Premise, but Ultimately an Unconvincing Cliché.
Summary: 3 Stars
In "Intimate Strangers", a case of mistaken identity leads two strangers to become so emotionally entwined that their shared secrets become a means to sort out their neuroses. Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) seeks the help of a psychiatrist in dealing with her marital problems, but mistakenly arrives at the office of a tax attorney down the hall instead. The attorney, William (Fabrice Luchini), at first thinks she is a new client seeking financial advice concerning a divorce. When he realizes that Anna wanted the office of M. Monnier, the psychiatrist, he is too intrigued to correct her. She eventually discovers her error, but continues to tell her troubles to William. The more she explains, the less he understands, and so he ends up consulting the psychiatrist Monnier (Michel Duchaussoy).
"Intimate Strangers" succeeds in making the audience curious to understand Anna's situation and motives. We're intrigued, as William is, and this holds our attention for most of the film. But "Intimate Strangers" suffers from an utter lack of credibility and pervasive Freudian clichés. Anna is a fantasy. She does what a lonely, aging, cloistered man might fantasize that a younger woman who confides in him would do. She doesn't act realistically. People are given to act oddly and unpredictably, of course, but not in accordance with others' desires. The ending of the film is especially unbelievable. Director Patrice Leconte draws attention to the camera by shaking it at the worst moments, which only diminishes his characters. "Intimate Strangers" did keep my interest nearly until the end, but it did so by hinting at something more interesting than ever materializes. It's not bad as it goes along, but the film is almost completely lackluster in retrospect. In French with English subtitles.
The DVD: There are no bonus features. The movie is preceded by 6 unavoidable previews that last 15 minutes. The English subtitles cannot be turned off.
Movie Review: Playful,erotic?...ehh?...not quite enough!
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea is interesting: a woman walks into a tax accountant's office and mistakes him for a therapist...or does she? She divulges intimate details of her falling apart marriage in a few minutes and leaves. Very noir! This continues for weeks. Does the accountant reveal he is not a therapist? Is he going too far? Is she going too far?
When all is said and done, this terribly laborious Patrice Leconte film has little payoff. The plot, for lack of a better term, builds, but never really explodes. Instead, we are treated to a very unsatisfying bond that never actually materializes. I kept wanting something to justify the DVD advertizement; "Playful,erotic,suspenseful" and "One of the Best Movies of the Year", but nope...didn't happen!
I have seen all of these wonderful French actors before, Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Bonnaire and Anne Brochet, in much better roles. Patrice Leconte's work still is an up and down affair with me. Apart from Ridicule, Leconte's famous works The Girl On the Bridge (La Fille sur le pont) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ], The Widow of Saint-Pierre, and Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train) leave me flat and wanting. Just not my cup of tea.
French with English subtitles. Wouldn't recommend unless Leconte is your end-all!
Movie Review: Knocking on the wrong door
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this movie because I was intrigued by the storyline and I wanted to watch Anne Brochet. I was slightly disappointed by the movie, but Brochet did a very fine job(I only wish that she had a bigger part here). I think the biggest drawback of the movie is that the conversations (or the lack of it) between the two main characters did not live up to its astoundingly clever opening plot. I can accept their first two meetings being cut short because of the circumstances of their meeting, but the subsequent ones continued to be terse and abrupt. There's just not enough material to support the improbable premise. The director scramble to prop up the main storyline with subplots and characters (William's secretary, his last girlfriend, the real shrink). While they're all quite interesting and fit well into the plot, but I thought it was really the last straw when Ana's husband showed up at William's office. Overall, Sadrine and Fabrice did a good job in the title roles (especially the latter), but the storyline and the relationship between Ana and William could have been developed better.