Double Lover

"L'Amant Double (2017 release from France; US title Double Lover; 115 min.) brings the story of Chloe. As the movie opens, Chloe is discussing unexplained stomach aches with her doctor, who decided to refer Chloe to a psychologist, Paul Meyer. After a number of sessions, Chloe and Paul fall in love and she moves in with Paul. By coincidence, Chloe finds out that Paul has a twin brother, Louis, also a psychologist. Why didn't Paul tell Chloe about his twin brother? What becomes of Paul and Chloe? At this point we are 15 min,. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from well-regarded French director Francois Ozon, who previously brought us "Frantz", "In The House", "Potiche", just to name those (I absolutely loved "In the House"). Here he goes a very different direction, and brings a (semi-erotic) psychological thriller that even has some Hitchcockian elements to it: is everyone really who they appear to be? who is misleading whom? It all should make for a terrific movie. Alas, it isn't to be, and not by a long shot. Due to the plot-heavy nature of this film, I really don't want to say much more . But let me just say that by the end, it was utterly impossible to keep track as to who really was who, and some of the plot twists are nothing short of preposterous. Beware, there is quite a bit of nudity in the film, starting with a very weird opening shot. Belgian actor Jérémie Renier plays the dual roles of the twin brothers, and does the best he can with the material he's given. French actress Marine Vacth, on the other hand, looks utterly lost as Chloe. The legendary Jacqueline Bisset, as the mother, is unrecognizable (I didn't even realize it was her until the end credits rolled).

"L'Amant Double" premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival (how it made the festival's cut is absolutely beyond me). "Double Lover" recently opened on a single screen for all of Southwest Florida. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (about 15 people). I cannot imagine that this will play a long time in the theater. I typically love foreign movies, and knowing Ozon's reputation going in, I was really looking forward to this. While in good conscience I cannot recommend "Double Lover", I of course encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Double Lover starts in the best way, as all pieces are introduced. Then, the cast, brings another flavor as its blends and secures what is being experienced, but towards the third act, G!!!, All tumbles down in such an incredible mess, that just leaves you wonder you just wasted two hours of your time.

Right from the opening shot you get a pretty strong steer on what this movie is about and it will certainly appeal to the average male - and some females. It is largely pretentious soft porn but the actors do their best and it's French so appeals to me anyway.

Not a lot of plot once you're landed with the initial twist but it's passable. No more than that.

Only the french can open a movie with a vagina wide spread and not call it porn.

The french certainly have a different tolerance for nudity and sex as we all know but if it becomes pointless it just results in a cheap tool, as sex sells. I have to say though, that I didn't have the feeling at any time in the movie. All nudity scenes are there for a reason. While the style in which the film was shot in, is thrilling and you want to know what happens next, this has a small downside to it.

This movie has two possible endings, which you can see coming pretty early. So I was thinking either this will happen, or that. One of them then actually happened. So you have a 50/50 chance of being surprised. Normally I hate, when movies are to predictable, but in this case, it didn't actually hurt the film that much. The last scene though (without getting into spoilers) feels just ridiculous and it feels like, its simply there for pure shock value and nothing else to end the film with sort of a jump scare. Overall it's still an entertaining movie, nothing new, nothing to classy but you wont be bored for a minute and that also matters a lot.

A psycho-sexual thriller that you have to think about when it is over to understand what was really going on. Would rate it higher if the characters were really involving, but you never really feel anything about them. Emotionally kind of dead, but intellectually interesting. Was tempted to see it again for the plot but didn't want to spend more time with the people.