Jean-Pierre Bacri: Jacques

Émilie Dequenne: Laura

Brigitte Catillon: Claire

Jacques Frantz: Ralph

Directed by Claude Berri

French with English subtitles. Romance / Drama. 91 minutes.

This bittersweet romantic drama from Claude Berri (Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring) is a multi-layered tale about life passages, played out in the space where desires and reality collide in the lives of ordinary people. Middle-aged Jacques (Jean-Pierre Bacri) works as a sound engineer. His wife has left him for another man. He commiserates with old friend Claire, who has also recently been left by her unfaithful spouse. Meanwhile, his apartment is a mess. Answering an ad placed on the local bulletin board by a young woman seeking housekeeping work, he engages Laura (Émilie Dequenne) to clean it.

Cautious, but earthly and open, Laura's slightly disheveled presence at first annoys Jacques a little. He does not like her rock music. He prefers jazz. She uses a broom to clean the carpet. He would rather she use the vacuum. He is both drawn to her and wishes she would go away. Having been asked to move out of the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, she asks Jacques if she may stay with him. With a crisp economy of dialog, we observe the two of them share his space, begin to share meals and then sex, in a random, detached sort of way.

The crux of the story belongs less to their relationship and more to Jacques point of view. This male perspective seems to prevail in Berri's work. Bacri's Jacques is dead on target as a man who did not expect his life to take these turns. He is trying to keep his distance but also is flattered by Laura's attention. Émilie Dequenne, so promising in her award winning performance in 1999's Rosetta, brings her exceptional gift for candor to the role of Laura that makes her at once understood yet enigmatic.

Film director Catherine Breillat has a small but important role as Jacques' wife, Constance, who's having second thoughts about ending her marriage, probably too late. Jacques has had some time alone and although he doesn't like it, he is surviving. Laura has entered his life, but not his heart.

When he decides to get away for a couple of weeks to visit his old friend Ralph in Brittany, Laura begs him to take her. Ralph is a painter of portraits - portraits of chickens - and among some hilarious moments at his seaside home, some other things come to light. The trip is also Laura's departure point for a new direction in life. She is transformed into a chic, much more sophisticated and self-assured version of herself. She has come to Jacques more out of loneliness than love, although she can't see the difference. At Ralph's she wants to go clubbing and to the beach. Jacques doesn't. The difference between them turns into a gulf bit by bit.

Accompanied by a smooth, jazzy score, these few weeks in the life of Jacques and Laura leave them changed and able to move on. Near the end, we see Jacques in the bright light of the beach, the sun full on his face showing his age. Although it is not clear what happens next, it is clear that Jacques too has been transformed by the brief interlude with Laura and there is promise for the future. This gentle little film leaves one touched by the joy and pain each has felt.