LOVE CRIME – The Review

The new French film LOVE CRIME is an absorbing corporate thriller that examines the lethal alliances of women in power. The final work from Alain Corneau (acclaimed director of lots of French films I haven’t seen), LOVE CRIME pits actresses Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier against each other in a tale of office politics and one-upsmanship turned deadly. The plot, a wonderfully twisty affair filled with ingenious turns, is a pleasure to watch as it unfolds. Christine (Scott Thomas), a ruthless top exec in the Paris office of an American-owned multinational corporation, has it all; money, an expensively-decorated penthouse, and younger boy-toy Philippe (Patrick Mille), a shady lawyer working for her by day. Best of all, she has her bright young assistant Isabelle (Sagnier), devoted despite the menacing and sadistic undertones in their relationship. She enjoys toying with Isabelle’s innocence and teaching her the hard lessons of her cold-blooded professional philosophy. Christine has her eye on a promotion to their New York branch and will stop at nothing to get it including stealing the hard-working Isabelle’s ideas and claiming them as her own. But Isabella isn’t as meek as she seems and when she makes an end run around her boss to elevate her own position, Christine, realizing she’s underestimated her underling’s ambition, escalates the situation with recriminations, cruelty, and mind games. A fierce conflict gradually breaks out between the two women, with hapless Phillipe used as a pawn. Christine exploits her position of power and publicly humiliates Isabelle which leads to a murder. The killing happens around the halfway point when LOVE CRIME turns not into a whodunit, but rather a film in which you try to figure out how they’re going to get away with it.

The killer intentionally places herself in a precarious situation, even confessing at one point, and one fascination of LOVE CRIME is figuring out how she’s going to extricate herself. Nothing about this movie is predictable; it’s 104 minutes of suspense. The best thing about it is the way the plot devises a way for the killer to create the perfect cover-up. Her meticulous timing, quick thinking and brilliant invention snatch victory from the hands of danger. Because it’s a French film, nothing really exciting happens so it has to rely on a good script and solid performances from the two leads. A mesmerizing Kristin Scott Thomas is the most fascinating person on screen, and the film itself suffers once she makes her exit. Ludivine Sagnier is excellent in a less-showy role, convincing both in early scenes when she’s mistreated, and later when it’s she who’s in control. In addition to the fine performance by these two actresses, LOVE CRIME is characterized by expert camerawork and crisp direction. Corneau understands how to sustain tension without drawing it out too far. Some of the steps the killer takes to cover her tracks are a bit convoluted and the audience is asked to fall for the weak structure of alibies left in her trail, but the film develops such cool tension that the plot gaps are forgivable. Blending the hard-boiled and the innocent, LOVE CRIME is a riveting piece of filmmaking that never relies on the obvious or the cliche. It takes a good film like this to shine the harsh fluorescent light of mediocrity on so many suspense films of late, in which the only suspense at hand is that burning question, “When will it be over?”

4 fo 5 Stars

LOVE CRIME opens in St. Louis today, October 7th, at Landmark Theater’s Plaza Frontenac