L'amour et les forêts

The domestic abuse subgenre has a large range in quality. This one is above average. Passionate performances; excellent supporting cast.

Points penalized for distracting and utterly useless use of twins in the plot. Likewise for black and white thinking- he was not all bad and she was not all good.

Educational and important to instruct women- and men- to recognize themselves in what could be abusive relationships, even though maybe nobody is physically abused, there are plenty of other ways to be abused. Psychological torture can indeed be less tolerable and more painful than a slap in the face.

Other than this highly polished demonstration of the complicated ways abuse can manifest and how easy it can be to forget ourselves within the box we have created with our romantic partners- yes, even you, intelligent that you are- and a startling reminder that even the most moral, normal, people can be hiding the deepest, darkest secrets, there was little in the way of character development. Anything that took place outside the "Us" was not handled well- namely, the twin subplot, which felt more like a gimmick or ploy to mislead the audience into believing it would evolve into a secondary storyline involving some horror aspects or, at the very least, switching places.

Arguably, there was not much more to the two main characters besides this all-consuming relationship to one another- for, as the title says, it was them and only them; over "Us", zero "I". However, it still resulted in a film that leaves audience members wanting and a story that feels unbalanced.

Recommended for its possible selfhelp and societal value, but audiences should not expect too much as far as a rewarding climax or an otherwise fulfilling film.