Crime d'amour

In Paris, Christine Rivière (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a tough executive of a French corporation. Her assistant Isabelle Guérin (Ludivine Sagnier) is an intelligent and cunning young woman needy of love and affection. When Isabelle is assigned to travel to Cairo with the lawyer Philippe Deschamps (Patrick Mille) to show her project, her idea is successful and Isabelle and Philippe have one night stand. Back in France, the senior management in the headquarter in Washington congratulates Christine for the project and she does not give the credit to Isabelle. Soon she notes that the manipulative Christine is using her to climb in the corporation. When her secretary Daniel (Guillaume Marquet) shows another project from Washington, Isabelle proposes improvements but does not show them to Christine. They have a meeting with the American executives and Isabelle is congratulated by them. Christine begins a war and humiliates Isabelle first using Philippe that has embezzled a large amount and is in her hands and then in a party. Isabelle plots a scheme and kills Christine at home. However the calculating Isabelle leaves many evidences in the crime scene incriminating herself and does not have an alibi.

"Crime d'amour" is another great French thriller with a good story of ambition, ingratitude and revenge. The two lead actresses, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, are wonderful and their duel is engaging. The theme, competition in a corporation, is a reality and the viewer will certainly identify characters with real real coworkers or ex-coworkers. The conclusion shows how dangerous is the secretary Daniel. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crime de Amor" ("Love Crime")

Having watched Sweet Karma earlier tonight, I don't know if I was in the mood for two revenge movies, but this is very different.

A favorite of mine, Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Four Wedding and a Funeral) stars with another fave, Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool, 8 Women). They are number one and two in a multinational's Paris location. Christine Thomas) is not above stealing the ideas of Isabelle (Sagnier) to get transferred to New York.

This was director Alain Corneau's last film, and it has already been picked up for a remake by Brian DePalma coming out this year. It is rumored that Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes, Red Eye) and Noomi Rapace (the original Lisbeth Salander) will star.

After Christine threatens and humiliates Isabelle, she plots her revenge. Needless to say, it is an elaborate plot. I can't say anything more or it will spoil the film for you.

It had me on the edge of my seat in the second half.

Rare for a mysterious thriller set in the high stakes business realm, Love Crime (Crime d'Amour) is dominated by women with the men relegated to paltry supporting roles. Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is on the fast track to the elite tier of her international business firm as chief of their Paris office. She is confident, sexy, knows how to work the room, and has complete faith in her subordinate Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). Not only is Christine a business mentor to Isabelle, she also assumes the role of life coach, close confidant, and in a few moments, possible temptress.

Isabelle is also on the fast track but is severely overshadowed by the extroverted Christine. She has original ideas which win the firm big clients but Christine will frequently claim those ideas as her own to help her case for promotion. Christine does not necessarily view this as the immoral thing to do. She is the boss and ideas flow to the top. Plus, any success merited to Christine will naturally help Isabelle's career; however, Isabelle must never forget who is truly in charge.

While attempting to prove herself outside of Christine's shadow, Isabelle sparks a feud between the two careerists with drastic consequences. So begins an intricate chess match of hints, allegations, innuendo, and dramatic backroom conversations. Christine attempts to squash her former protégé back into obscurity and Isabelle maneuvers to step into her own spotlight subverting her malicious boss.

If you have a weakness for 'who dunnits' or intricate true crime methodologies, then Love Crime is your guilty pleasure come true. However, if you have only passing interest in the above mentioned genre, then you can take or leave this film. The script is sharp, the acting is a pleasure to watch, and the intense, hushed French conversations will keep you immersed, but there is not much more to it.

Isabelle's relationship with Christine reminded me a bit of the earlier Ludivine Sagnier role in Swimming Pool, but instead of Charlotte Rampling, this time you get a much more assertive Kristin Scott Thomas. There are also direct reminders of The Business of Strangers with Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles.

Sagnier redeems herself in this audience member's eye from her disastrous work in The Devil's Double. While that was a good film, her character and acting drastically impacted its plausibility. Plausibility is also a factor here in Love Crime. There are overreactions you would never see in reality but the intricate follow through in the malevolent details make up for a good portion of disbelief.

Someone who says that only men are capable of cruelty has not watched this movie. A fine example of cruelty and a very good movie (with very good actresses as well). I won't spoil anything about the story or the characters, but I can tell you that it is more about the road than the ultimate goal. It isn't very hard to see where this is heading and you might also see what it achieves to do.

Still very well made and executed with the mentioned central performances that are just amazing. The women go head to head (with different style and results of course), which might be enough for you to not see the obvious flaws. It was as you can see and read, enough for me.

As someone who firmly believes that Ludivine Sagnier and Kristin Scott Thomas are two of the finest actresses working today in any country, watching them go head-to-head against each other was obviously something I was going to be looking forward to. When it came to Love Crime, the story lacked a little bit of punch but seeing them go at it wasn't disappointing in the least. Both women are at the top of their game here, with Thomas taking some inspiration from Glenn Close in a very cold and cerebral Patty Hewes-esque role while Sagnier expertly utilizes her skill for vulnerability and sexuality.

I was hoping the whole thing would pack some real heat, so I was disappointed that it was a lot more slow-moving than I thought and wasn't as thrilling as something like this should be, but that's not to say that it didn't keep me interested throughout. The concept was pretty unique for this kind of film and it's hard to get into without bordering on spoiler territory, but I was very curious as to how the events were going to unfold. It felt like you knew what the endgame was, but seeing how the story got to that point was very intriguing. At the end of the day though, the film is all about being able to watch these great talents bounce off each other, with slightly less impact than I was expecting.