La Vénus d'argent

Jeanne lives a bifurcated life.

At home, she is the eldest of 3 children in a single-parent family. Their father is a police officer who needs his overtime work to make ends meet, so she often ends up playing the "mother" role in the family. It gets complicated when her ex-boyfriend returns after a 4-year assignment away with the army, expecting to resume their relationship. But she has had a bad sexual encounter with him, and has been ghosting him all this time.

Professionally, she dreams of being in the world of high finance - investment banking or hedge funds - despite the fact that she is mostly self-taught. Trying to become a quantitative analyst (or "quant"), she binds her breasts and wears a man's suit, while still using her female name. By spotting an error in computer code, she parlays her role as an intern into such a job, and even gets an offer for a quant job in Singapore, which causes tensions within the family.

The Spirit of Ecstasy is the hood ornament seem in the car her boss rides in, and which she later emulates, posing out of the sunroof of a moving car.

I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the 1st-time lead actress mentioned that she spent a year rehearsing and researching the world of finance. She did a decent job, and the soundscapes were good. However, I have problems with the script. I had trouble with both the overall arc of the story, and also some specific scenes. As such, it was not worth my battling with the subtitles.

Okay, I read some reviews and. Summaries on the Spirit of Ecstasy and it seems that did not jive at all with the movie. I saw no abuse from the overworked father, but I did witness misogyny 101 with Jeanne taking back Augustin who apparently forced sexual relation upon prior to going to Africa in the French army. Funny how every director seems to use Stockholm Syndrome to mend a broken and shredded fence. At that point I had had enough of weak and inferior script writing and hit the eject button. I'd rather watch paint dry, or take out the garbage, than sit here face palming myself watching this train wreck in progress.

I feel giving this a 3 is being generous.