Filmmaker Joachim Lafosse's emotionally painful drama observes the end of a marriage and the subsequent emotional toll on both the adults and children. Marie Barrault (Bérénice Bejo) and Boris Marker (Cédric Kahn), parents of twin elementary-school daughters, are splitting up after 15 years of marriage but still stuck co-inhabiting their two-bedroom family home—an apartment that Marie purchased and Boris renovated. He can't afford to move out and they are fighting over his share of the property, so they end up in a near-constant state of resentful coexistence, provoking one another in passive-aggressive comments and periodically exploding into shouting matches (often in front of the increasingly anxious girls). The film begins with the pair in conflict, and viewers never learn any history about their relationship or their lives outside this turmoil (Boris is in debt to some shady characters but it is never revealed who they are or why he owes them), which is somewhat frustrating. But the emotions and resentments are well-drawn and convincingly played, and Lafosse sets the action almost entirely in the apartment, which ratchets up the claustrophobic tensions. An uncomfortable but perceptive drama about people and relationships under stress, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)
After Love
Icarus, 100 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $26.99 Volume 33, Issue 2
After Love
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