One Stays, the Other Leaves (2005)
A story about two couples, longtime friends in which both husbands engage in long-term affairs and, as the title says, ultimately one remains with his wife and one makes a new life with another woman.
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Waste of time
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
This is one of those French movies that may not translate well for Americans. Most American movies dealing with marital infidelity usually end with someone's death as in movies like Unfaithful, Fatal Attraction, or the sinning spouse going back to the marriage. Our puritanical background, perhaps? Culturally speaking, we tend to hold that the wages of sins is death.The French have a more nuanced view of the subject, and this movie reflects it perfectly well.Excellent performance by all the actors, even direction, honest dialogue. This movie is to be enjoyed with an open mind.
The film was shown in the Istanbul Film Festival 2006. As I'm a fan of French movies I was thrilled to see Claude Berri's 2005 film. The classical plot is elaborately woven but its not including any real suspense or surprise. The most prominent feature which is shared by each character is their loneliness and lack of true happiness or deep feeling for anything or anyone. The individualism so characteristic of the postmodern world keeps them reserved, self-centered, self-absorbed - that is selfish and uncaring. The strange thing is, this is not considered abnormal because it's shared by everyone. Besides the one who stays is not so very different from the one who stays and the reasons of their different choices are not revealed to us. So we don't feel relieved or disturbed that either one "reste or part".Whatsoever the great actors and actresses can be an excuse to see the film.
The word on the street is that Claude Berri fictionalised certain events in his private life for this film. That's as maybe but true or not the rumors seem to have had an adverse effect, keeping audiences away and comments to nil. Hard to see why; after all heavy hitters on the order of Daniel Auteuil, Nathalie Baye, Pierre Arditi and Miou-Miou don't knowingly and/or willingly associate themselves with suspect projects and even if they did their professionalism would ensure respectable performances. As with her mother and half-sister I can take or leave Charlotte Gainsbourg but even so I can hardly fault her performance here in the thankless role of the 'other' woman - one of two 'other' women as it happens, for this is the story of two couples, longtime friends in which both husbands engage in long-term affairs and, as the title says, ultimately one remains with his wife and one makes a new life with another woman. Noemie Lvovsky also lends her considerable expertise to a supporting role having herself directed Nathalie Baye in a similar movie, Les Sentiments, last year. You can't really argue with Arditi's decision to remain with Nathalie Baye (clearly he has more sense than Patrick Bruehl who let her go in Un Vie a t'attendre, also last year) though I for one and based purely on personal preference, would question anyone preferring Gainsbourg to almost any other actress (no offense, Yvan). On the whole I found this a totally engaging movie and easily rating 7 to 8 stars.