Leaving (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

hyped garbage

Beautiful, moving film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Making movies about affairs is a tricky business. While they may be a matter of life and death to those involved they are spectacularly boring to the outside observer. They make no sense, defy all logic and seem the ultimate in selfishness, self-delusion and self-destruction. We acknowledge they exist but they are not a pretty sight. For these reasons it is difficult for an audience to become involved with the protagonists of the affair. You observe them in all their madness rather than root for them, more a technical exercise than an emotional one. So it is with this movie, it is done as well as it possibly could be but for all that we look at the events unfolding as they surely must into disaster, watch the credits roll, and walk away from it as if we had just watched a documentary. It might help if we actually knew and cared about one or both of the protagonists before it all started. It might help even more if one or both of them were likable. Kristen Scott Thomas may be a good actress but she does not "do" warm, or perhaps she has just not landed roles that show this side of here. Whatever the reason she is not a likable person here, which may well be what was intended. Although the guy is very much the secondary character in the portrayal of the relationship he does at least bring a modicum of humanity and warmth to his role. He seems to have unwittingly awakened a monster in his mate that he is doing his best to control, and he seems like a nice, uncomplicated sort of guy. He is in over his head trying to control KST and it's hard not to sympathize with him a little. The endorsement on the cover of the DVD says it is a "magnificent love story". We see these two rutting and heaving and panting but the effect is not beautiful, or sexy or passionate, quite the contrary, all you want to do is look away in embarrassment. While we might understand on a technical level that there is some sort of love involved it is something we can't understand and can't get share in so ultimately all we see is a lot of lust. It is anything but "magnificent", it has little or nothing to do with "love" and I'm not even sure it is a "story" - it is just what inevitably happens in this particular situation. OK, the shooting is a little unusual but that is so tacked on, illogical and irrelevant it is hard to know what to make of it. Aside from that, unlike other reviewers I have no problem with the "authenticity" of the situation, let's face it, love of this nature is a form of temporary insanity, and to try and analyze it terms of logic is a futile exercise.So...in summary, a serviceable, well produced depiction of what amounts to a cautionary tale involving characters that aren't particularly likable. You will probably watch to the end, you will probably not hate it, but you may not be a better, wiser or more entertained person because of it.

Leaving (2009)A very dry slice of life, and a common and awful slice of life--the breakup of a seemingly okay marriage. It's a very modern, well off, pan European series of events, mostly taking place in the south of France. There is devastation, violence, sex, hurt children, hurt friends, and mostly a lot of pain between the ecstasies. And I suppose that's how it really goes down. Fair enough.But not necessarily the most engaging movie. I'm not talking about being entertained, but about being lifted, or made to rethink something serious, or maybe even be swept away in something lyrical. Not so. This is deliberately (or not) a study in realism, and yet a glossy one, with some neat ends tied up here and there. I mean, it may be a series of fairly realistic events, but this is a simplified, "nice" world. The one really solid reason to watch this is the stellar, nuanced, deeply felt performance by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas. The range of moods is amazing, and moving, if you can get absorbed otherwise.

This is a movie that stays with you for a long time after viewing. The acting is extraordinary, the attraction between the two main characters palpable, the photography and sceneries beautiful. I really don't see why so much negative criticism is directed toward the plot. Passion has existed since time beginning and this is what this movie is all about, an uncontrollable, all consuming passion, which is made very believable by the wonderful.Kristin Scott Thomas. Sergi López is perfect as the lover, passionate, tender and vulnerable. If you are looking for the reason why Suzanne falls in love with him, those are the main reasons, besides the fact that he is obviously good looking. I enjoyed the movie tremendously. Every scene was essential to the plot, no gratuitous sex scenes here. And the style was elegant, as only the French know how to do.

i really do not understand the french sensibility. if it would have been my wife telling me i have an affair and i want the money before the divorce so that i can live comfortably with my lover. i would just castrate her lover.besides that the acting was fantastic the sex scenes were believable. i didn't understand why the wife was unhappy as the family looked pretty happy and satisfied. The kids are okay with their mother having affair. why i don't know. the movie is just insane. to cut things short you cannot make life difficult for your wife in case she decided to elope with her lover. do not protest, do not ever think she will comeback and live with you, give her your blessings and give her lover dowry and let her go if you don't do this she will shoot you. Now thats love the frenchie style.