He Loves Me, He Love Me Not film review

certificate_12A

HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT...

Pretty student Angelique (Audrey Tautou) reveals to her good friend David (Clement Sibony) that she has embarked on an affair with renowned doctor Loic (Samuel Le Bihan), behind the back of his pregnant wife Rachel (Isabelle Carre). Loic has promised to leave his spouse in order to be with Angelique, but he keeps reneging on his promise, and crucially, he fails to turn up for a planned romantic trip abroad.

David is understandably upset by Loic's selfish behaviour, and demands that Angelique end the affair immediately, to prevent any further emotionally hurt. His heartfelt warnings fall on deaf ears and Angelique continues to pursue Loic at the expense of her health, eventually ending up in hospital.

Meanwhile, Rachel discovers her husband's indiscretions and is enraged by his betrayal. She refuses to abandon him, not least when a mentally unstable, middle-aged patient claims that Loic physically abused her in his examination room. However, all is not what it seems, and Angelique is anything but the poor, unsuspecting victim...

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not... is a stylish Gallic remix of Fatal Attraction, in which people and situations are rarely as they first appear.

Writer-director Laetitia Colombani cleverly distorts our perception of Angelique's amour fou, then pulls the rug from under us with a tour-de-force finale which allows the leads to play against type.

The opening 80 minutes or so reveal the affair from Angelique's perspective, as she is constantly let down by the man she loves. From the dreamy first shot of Tautou starring wide-eyed at a shop full of headily scented roses, we are lured into taking the seemingly delicate heroine into our hearts. Then the film hastily rewinds, and we witness the illicit liaison through the eyes of Loic, who offers a very different version of events.

Tautou crushes any memory of her breakthrough role as lovable heroine Amelie, yet still manages to arouse sympathy for her spurned lover, and Le Bihan confirms his status as one of French cinema's most watchable and charismatic leading men.

Colombani's direction throughout is crisp and fluid, evoking a wonderland vision of Paris belying the characters' tortured emotions.