He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Throughout the first half of this deceptive romantic thriller that thinks it's full of clever twists, writer-director Laetitia Colombani conspicuously leaves out so many details of her story that it's a dead giveaway something is amiss with her heroine, an obsessive art student zealously in love with a handsome, married doctor (Samuel Le Bihan, Brotherhood of the Wolf). Granted, she buys a little time and good will by casting angelic art-house cinema sweetheart Audrey Tautou (Amélie) in the lead, a young woman whose wide-eyed lovability is chipped away in a superbly measured performance that slowly reveals serious instability. But in skirting around the fact that Le Bihan doesn't seem to be in love with Tautou, Colombani makes it too obvious that she's trying to keep a major plot development under wraps--and it won't be long before any savvy filmgoer will realize what that development is and then remain 10 steps ahead for the rest of the picture as it literally rewinds and begins again from Le Bihan's point of view. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review—Apr. 7, 2015—First Run, 96 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 2002's He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not features a fine transfer but no extras. Bottom line: long out-of-print, this foreign film featuring the winsome Audrey Tautou split critics.]