Une femme de notre temps

When she made Anthony Zimmer, I was such a big fan. After that, her movies have gone downhill. It's like all the projects offered to her are mediocre or crass. This one is particularly stupid. The French title's literal translation is "A Woman of Our Time" or "A Contemporary Woman". The woman in this film is definitely not a woman of our time. She is illogical, emotional, over-wrought, out of control. You would think a female who is competent enough to ascend to the rank of Chief of Police would have some common sense and intelligence. But no, this one can't handle a little marital infidelity. Keep in.mind the long-held notion that all French men have mistresses; monogamy is not the norm in France. She goes out of her head, cannot sleep for days when she discovers her husband is cheating on her. Bizarre. You would think in this day and age, everyone assumes their spouse cheats or should assume it because sex is so casual, it means nothing nowadays. Marriage is not so much an institution as it is a frame of mind. So this female cop doesn't do anything when she's on the job. She spends her personal time writing books, jogging and practising her archery. She doesn't spend time with her husband. She tells him she loves him but she would rather spend her evenings after work searching for inspiration for her next novel. The character in this movie is schizoid. Bad slow boriing movie because it simply does not go anywhere and makes absolutely no sense. I have recently seen a lot of bad movies by Sophie Marceau and I normally stop watching after the first 10 minutes. This one I watched until the very end because the synopsis sounded promising and intriguing. I should have stopped watching the moment I realized this is not a mystery, not a crime drama, not a suspense-thriller, not a love story but a portrait (badly drawn) about a woman (any woman, not necessarily French, not necessarily a cop) going off the rails. A normal, contemporary "woman of our times" would have simply focussed on her career and asked for a divorce instead of going batshit crazy the minute she suspects her husband's adultery. At the end of this movie, she stands to lose everything -- career, her freedom, family, her standing in the community and everything she ever worked for, all because she can't handle the thought of her husband with some other woman/women. What a dumb story. Dumb enough that I may never want to see another Sophie Marceau movie again. I watched this one because of her. In future, I may avoid all movies starring her. Thumbs way down.

Sophie Marceau 's best role in my own opinion (I used to despise her). She is a perfect actress all the film long. All her different attitudes seem more real than reality. She expresses lassitude the right way. The last scene is a fantastic one, during ten minutes, I was asking myself what will happen? Maybe anticipating the end in my own useless way, but it is perfectly done. Her last confession is exactly what it should be. Too many scenes are filmed at night but as it is a Moby Dick Film, and with such a good name it is very good. Cinematography good, the scenes in day light are very pleasant, very real!

Remember Nathalie Baye eight years ago in LA VOLANTE, the story of an ordinary woman suddenly seeking revenge and then becoming some kind of evil character of the story. OK, the plot was quite different, if you compare with this one, but admit that this main character is rather close, an ambivalent character - hesitating between good and evil - for whom the audience can feel some empathy. I love ambivalent characters, between black and white; only grey. Then you can still have light or dark grey...That's the most interesting. And Sophie Marceau is so convincing, as she was in 2016 with LA TAULARDE, another performance that would have perfectly been fine to Nathalie Baye. Story telling may seem lousy but Sophie Marceau is awesome.