Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rebecca Zlotowski
Starring: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, Luana Bajrami
Jodie Foster follows the path forged by the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Jacqueline Bissett and Kristen Scott Thomas in becoming the latest Anglophone actress to star in a French movie. The American performer has appeared in minor roles in French productions before, but director Rebecca Zlotowski has gifted Foster a first French language lead role. While the film around her does little to distinguish itself, it offers Foster her most interesting role in quite some time.
Foster plays Lilian, an American based in Paris. Lilian is a psychoanalyst, a profession beloved of European filmmakers. There are few clichés more overplayed than the therapist whose life is a bigger mess than any of their clients, and that's what we get once more here.
Lilian is a pretty awful psychoanalyst. She records all of her sessions on the long defunct minidisc format, but she doesn't seem to actually pay much attention to her clients, one of whom quits after years of therapy when a hypnotist cures his nicotine addiction in a single session. Claiming Lilian has extorted thousands out of him over the years with no progress, he sues her for reparations. As if that wasn't damaging enough to Lilian's reputation, another of her clients, Paula (a wasted Virginie Efira), has just taken her own life.
Paula's husband, Simon (Mathieu Amalric), blames her death on Lilian. But when she looks into the details of Paula's demise, Lilian notes how Simon has received Paula's substantial inheritance from a wealthy aunt, and she becomes convinced that Paula was murdered. Lilian comes to such conclusions by listening back to her recordings of Paula, having clearly not paid sufficient attention at the time.
Tonally, A Private Life falls somewhere between the lighter fare of François Ozon and late era Woody Allen's largely misguided dabbling in the thriller genre. It is most engaging when Foster shares the screen with Daniel Auteuil, who plays Lilian's ex-husband Gabriel, whom she ropes into her investigation with the promise of some post-marital nookie. Foster and Auteuil make for an unexpectedly winning partnership, and their joint portrayal of two people who still love each other and continue to share a mutual attraction but simply can't live together any longer is never less than convincing. It is as though these two actors have been working together for decades, and we can sense their shared satisfaction at getting to appear alongside the sort of performer they have previously only admired from afar. They are also allowed to be sexy in a way actors of their vintage simply aren't in the sort of American productions that are Foster's stock in trade.
Foster is magnetic here, her performance veering between comedic and tragic - how many more great performances might she have under her belt by now if she had left for France two decades ago? Lilian is a multifaceted character that affords the American the chance to really stretch herself.
But the film around her is something of a mess. The comedy clashes with the thriller aspect, meaning we never really feel as though Lilian is putting herself in any real danger with her vigilante investigation. A subplot involving Lilian's visions of a past life while under hypnosis would be more suited to a '70s giallo thriller - it is jarringly out of place in what is otherwise a relatively grounded story. There is a suspicion that much of A Private Life ended up on the cutting room floor. Why cast an actress as high profile as Efira only to relegate her to a few brief glimpses in flashback, and why hint at a homoerotic attraction between Lilian and her patient when nothing else about the film supports this idea? Lilian has an awkward relationship with her adult son (Vincent Lacoste), and there is a throwaway mention of another child that is later glimpsed in a split second flashback. Did this child pass away? That might account for Lilian's reluctance to cradle her infant grandson, but the movie never explores this idea. Surely it played a bigger role in an earlier draft or edit?
There is much to frustrate in A Private Life's storytelling, but if you don't take it too seriously you'll have fun watching Foster reinvent herself as France's latest imported star.
A Private Life is in UK/ROI cinemas from June 26th.
