Intimate Strangers


Synopsis
When a French woman with some serious marital issues mistakes a tax lawyer for a therapist, she embarks on a relationship that could prove to be therapeutic for both of them.

Observations
I didn't quite get this movie. The premise didn't seem that original, the acting was mediocre and the setting was boring. When Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) enters a tax lawyer's office instead of a therapist's office, she begins to tell tax lawyer William Faber (Fabrice Luchini) her intimate martial problems. Basically, her husband has become recently crippled and he wants her to have sex with another man. Through Anna's “chats”, she slowly and subtlety seduces Faber, her demeanor becomes more and more risque and her clothing more and more revealing. She finds out early on that Faber is a tax lawyer and not a therapist, but continues to see him. Most of the movie I spent wondering “Are they gonna do it, or what?” When Anna's husband finds out she is seeing someone, the film develops a slightly Hitchcockian-sensibility that ultimately falls flat.

This movie is rated “R” for language, which though at times explicit, was never really titillating. Anna is a kind of fantasy to Faber. She shows up unexpectedly into his boring life and talks to him about sex. Though Anna never propositions Faber, the possibility hangs in the air. I found it intriguing that several times when Faber looked at Anna she was quite fuzzy; her features completely indistinct. Was this the director's way of trying to tell me that for Faber, Anna does not exist or have definition as a real person, only as fantasy? Could be, but I really didn't care.

The best reason to watch this movie is for the middle-age-meets-Risky-Business scene about mid-way through. Probably the funniest film moment I've seen in quite a while.

Rating:
Amazon's entry for Intimate Strangers