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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
LEAVING For all intents and purposes, housewife Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) seems to have it all. Of course, the resounding gunshot that opens the film would imply otherwise. Even without the dramatic opening, one senses that writer-director Catherine Corsini’s film does not end well. With a title like Leaving, how could it? A story of bourgeois boredom triggering a mid-life crisis is an intriguing and potentially moving subject, but Leaving falls flat. Despite some lovely emoting from Thomas, and a neat, understated performance from Sergi López, it’s very hard to care about Suzanne. And it’s even harder to care about her problems. Suzanne meets Spanish laborer Ivan (López) while he builds her a new office, a gift from Suzanne’s husband, Samuel (Yvan Attal), a doctor. Somehow dissatisfied with a gorgeous house in southern France, two beautiful children, an attentive (if workaholic) husband, and a fulfilling new career as a physical therapist, Suzanne soon embarks on a hot and heavy affair with Ivan. Before you can blink, she leaves her old life to embark on a new one with her lover. But starting from scratch as a blue-collar couple is a lot harder when you’re 40 than when you’re 20. Throw in a vengeful husband with connections to the mayor and Ivan and Suzanne’s life turns from idyllic to horrific faster than you can say, “Let’s move from the town where my husband has major political connections and can make our lives miserable.” Which, of course, they don’t. Although the cast is generally excellent, the characters are either one-note or schizophrenic. Ivan is charming and attractive with the necessary bad boy streak (he has a prison record). Samuel is perfect, until Suzanne leaves him, at which he becomes a boorish control freak (who still, for unimaginable reasons, wants Suzanne back). And Suzanne changes from content to passionate to pathetic to criminal (she robs her former home to try to pay the bills) without any motivation whatsoever. True, Thomas imbues her with an incandescent smile but little charisma and certainly no sexual punch. It’s hard to imagine what Ivan and Samuel see in her. When you think she can’t sink lower, she does (begging in a gas station comes to mind). And she certainly won’t win any mother of the year awards. At one point, in explaining her attitude towards her ex, she says to her children, “Your father owes me… for raising the two of you,” and then marvels at why her daughter storms out of the room. In
essence, Suzanne is not troubled enough or unsettled enough or, heck,
even bored enough to encourage interest. True, she seems to drift a bit
but not enough to seem lost. Certainly not enough to merrily cast off
and go sailing into a storm of passion and irresponsibility.
Lisa Bernier
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