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I liked the characters in this film and the actors playing them. But the truth is this film falls short in its effort to examine sex addiction vs. the complexity of love and relationships. I suppose it is easy to dismiss this work as a well produced soft porn flick. It seems to want to be much more. The problem is the characters are not all that well developed. We do not know what the two principal characters find in each other that will transcend their heavy breathing. They say they love each other eventually, but who knows why? Frankly I have know idea what the lead female character has to offer in terms of substance. At least the male character is seen reading Steppenwolf and not the cliff notes version, either. So I guess we can deduce he has depth and intelligence. The female lead, however, seems to work in photo developing shop as a clerk. Yet she has quite a varied wardrobe which she somehow is able to afford. That's about it in terms of her personality and depth. But they do have attractive bods and I must guiltily admit I enjoyed that. If the sex scenes were edited out, the theater would be empty half way through any screening!!!

So much has been said about this film - most of it very positive. For those who love films with little plot or character development, this film is for them. It is about loneliness and isolation. It is also very slowly paced. Pretension also comes to my mind because we, the viewer, are asked to accept significant illogical plot points presumably because it seems artful to do so. Come on. We are asked to believe a very attractive, stylish young woman would, after a few dates, agree to marry a much older, lonely man who apparently does not have much personality. If the reason she does is because he can provide for her all the designer clothes she could buy, she must surely be a very superficial person. Yet, these two apparently find marital bliss although her clothes closet gets bigger and bigger to the point a whole room has to be taken over to accommodate her lack of control. Uh, really!!! Not once is addressed addiction as a serious personality disorder. Rather we are asked to find beauty in that somehow these two mismatched characters with serious problems are happy except for that elephant (or should I say clothes horse) in the middle of the room. I am perhaps viewing this film from too literal a viewpoint yet I came away thinking that I have been snookered. The photography is impressive as are the performances. Too bad the film is like a fortune cookie. Not much food value with a message no one takes seriously.

In sum, overlong and filled with more subplots than swiss cheese has holes! The director and co-writer says he wanted to mix genres - in this case drama and comedy. Well, at least here, these two mix like vinegar and oil. To boot, the comedy is not very funny and juvenile. Additionally, the film is not really realistic. Liberties are taken regarding the legal system in committing French Citizens against their will and the apparent ease of absconding with drugs in French Hospitals. I watched this film on my big screen TV at home and found myself shouting at the film to move on. Eventually toward the end I fast forwarded the final long speech one of the main characters makes to his ex-lover's son. By that time I was worn out by the preposterous confused plot that deals with a dead lover, marriage of convenience and a nutty ex-lover. At times the plot diverts to the families of the two main characters and then reverts back to one of them - either Ismael or primarily Nora. To the detriment of the audience, viewpoints keep changing from Nora and Ismael, her ex-lover confined against his will in a psychiatric hospital. There probably are two potentially interesting films here neither of which are well developed. The epilogue does not really wrap up many of the sub-plots and seems to want the viewer to believe Nora somehow will find happiness although given her circumstances in real life the chances are equivalent to a snow ball's chance in hell. The actors do their best and are appealing, but this is not enough to overcome all the glaring faults of poor writing, editing and lack of focus.