Intimate Strangers (2004)

You won't be disappointed!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The tax lawyer mistaken for a psychiatrist ended up healing his "patient" by just listening, not judging, and by being there for her. Having some knowledge of psychotherapy, this impressed me. The real psychiatrist was giving Faber advice about how he should "treat" the woman, but in the end Faber followed his own instincts. The two main characters were fascinated by each other and this was clear, but they didn't express their attachment in a conventional way. I found this movie compelling because it was difficult to anticipate what would happen and the characters seemed real. The impact of real loneliness and what it makes people do was well shown. I was also pleasantly surprised at how the lighting, the sets and the general mood lightened as the film went on, echoing the more optimistic outlook that Anna developed. It was encouraging to think that by sharing intimate problems, it is possible to work through them, even if the other person only listens and doesn't offer solutions.

A guy with a rather mediocre life opens the door of his office and finds there a woman who mistakes him for a shrink. He has no time to react so he let the woman tell him about her troubles. Anyway they'll find in each other kind of a exhaust valve for their lives.The story in Lceonte's movie gives raise to several reflections: sometimes is easier to tell your deepest secrets to an unknown. There are not misunderstandings, there are not prejudices, there are not emotional walls to overcome. "Confidences" also states that the power of a psychoanalyst is quite debatable.As for the cast, the actors are just nice. Sandrine Bonnaire looks as mysterious as always.*My rate: 7.5/10

I've just finished watching this film and I'm left wondering with all the talent at his disposal in sandrine bonnaire and fabrice luchini, anna and william respectively, patrice leconte could have taken the direction this film eventually took. neither character, at least to my mind was developed sufficiently enough for us to delve under the surface, and discover for ourselves, the trepid nature of their coaxial relationship. A relationship born in unlikely circumstances as Anna mistakenly enters the office of a tax adviser whom she believes to be her psychiatrist. She starts by divulging her martial problems, and through subsequent visits unburdens herself on the reticent accountant. leconte and tonnerre dispel any illusion of romance at the outset, which may have tarnished my viewing pleasure, but for the first half an hour of the film it doesn't matter as you're engrossed in the situation the two find themselves in. anna says something along the lines, "my husband wants me to sleep with other men" william "it would have to be someone you love, have you..." (I paraphrase). anna "I have yet to meet him" fabrice throws her a wounded look with which she acknowledges with a fierce stare, as if to beckon his burgeoning desire. The film does have its moments, though it lacks proper dialogue and what little dialogue there is only serves to move the story along, devoid of wit or charm. maybe I'm being too harsh. I'll let you decide.

Intimate Strangers is one of the most unique love stories that I have viewed in my life. It features two lonely individuals--one who has no one to talk and another who is an accomplished listener who will not say and cannot say what is on his mind.Mr. Faber, the tax attorney pressed into service as a therapist due to a case of mistaken identity ,reveals himself as being terribly repressed. He is a good man. He is honest, honorable, well-ordered and caring. He is also utterly incapable of either making the first move or of forcing a choice, as his off-and-on girlfriend Jeanne reminds him. This appears to be the reason that the two of them cannot make their romance a permanent one. She is aware of his attributes but cannot forgive his flaws. Indeed, some her actions with her new boyfriend and Mr. Faber seem calculated to force a response. She would prefer William Faber, but wishes him to claim her. He cannot.Throughout the film, William Faber makes an inviting target. He is a closed individual, but only marginally more so than the other characters in the film. The other characters just hide it better. They are just as lonely and just as stuck as Faber. At one point he reminds Jeanne that when he first met her she was going to be a novelist, instead she contented herself with filing and stacking books away at a library. Jeanne appears thunderstruck when he slaps her across the face with that intimate secret. Nonetheless, you do find yourself wondering how Faber got to be Faber. The fact that one of the main characters remains shrouded in mystery is the one weakness of this otherwise excellent film.Anna, Faber's patient/doctor is the focus of the film and she gives an excellent performance. I call her patient/doctor because her relationship with Faber is symbiotic. During the course of the film the two of them heal one another. Unlike Faber, Anna is aware of the dynamics between them and its nature. At one point a patient of Dr. Monnier asks Anna about her therapist. "I'm his only patient. He needs me," Anna responds. In fact, for much of the film, the true question is just how aware if Anna? A missing memento and a going away gift to Mr. Faber call into question whether Anna has launched him upon a quest, one where he can ultimately prove that there was something more to their meetings than two lonely people talking. Or is it just happenstance?Reading some of the comments of other viewers of this film I find that many are disappointed that Mr. Faber did not have more of an arc to his character. I would submit that it seems so small because he had so very far to go. The changes evidenced at the end of the film, while modest, were monumental for him. Like others, I was disappointed when given a chance to explain why he had sought her out he fudged the answer. However, as the credits rolled I watched him traverse the greatest distance in his life. He moved from his chair, to a table to pick up an ashtray, to sit on the couch beside Anna and share a cigarette together. A first move. Surely Anna will know what to do with that!See me...Feel me...Touch me...Heal me...All in all this is a great film.