Toying with the accepted dynamics of French sexual melodrama (e.g. Betty Blue, L’Ete Meurtrier), whereby a sensible chap is knocked off his bearings by a crazy sexpot, Jacques Doillon’s odd but entertaining psychodrama (2008) concerns a goodhearted knockout (Clementine Beaugrand) unaccountably determined to redeem the weedy ne’er-do-well (Gerald Thomassin) who’s just ditched her after a one-night stand. She tracks him to an off-season resort town, where her stalking behavior is passively abetted by a local cop (Guillaume Saurrel) who’s known the bad boy since childhood. This is talky and existential as the day is long, but the acting is terrific and Doillon extracts great value from his wintry beach location. In French with subtitles.
Just Anybody
2 hours 1 min • 2008