A Single Girl

A young girl, Valerie, meets her boyfriend at a cafe and informs him that she is pregnant. They discuss what ought to be done. Unfortunately, Valerie is about to be late for her first day at her new job, working room-service in a four-star hotel. Promising to return in an hour, she hurries to the hotel to learn the basics of her new position. After an hour on the job, in which nothing momentous occurs, she returns to the cafe, and the conversation with her boyfriend continues. Believe it or not, apart from a brief and unnecessary epilogue, that's all there is to this remarkable French film, the bulk of which unfolds in real time and is less concerned with the fate of the baby that Valerie is carrying than with how the uncertainty of her situation affects her ability to deliver croissants and towels. Because we know what's on Valerie's mind, everything she does for the next hour, no matter how routine, is fraught with emotional significance. As Valerie, Virginie Ledoyen virtually transcends the common notion of "acting"; most of the time, she is simply required to Be, which she does beautifully (in both senses of the word). Recommended. (M. D'Angelo)