Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C+
William Faber (Fabrice Luchini) is sick of taxes and
mathematics, which is his profession, so it comes as a unique change of pace
when a beautiful young woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) comes in and starts confessing
her most intimate thoughts and secrets.
The problem is that she has mistaken this taxman for a psychotherapist,
and so begins the odd drama Intimate Strangers (2004) that is not
certain it is a thriller, a suspense piece, or something else.
The original story is by Jerome Tonnerre, who co-wrote the
adaptation with director Patrice Leconte, who has given us Man On The Train
and Girl On The Bridge. Though
we have not covered those films yet, I can say that this film does not seem to
know for certain what it wants to say or do.
There is not even something being said here that only the filmmakers
understand and the audience would never get.
Instead, it seems to think it is some kind of character study, but the
result is a film that drags on and on.
The acting is not bad, but they are given little to do. I felt as much of a “stranger” to al the
characters when I ended the film as when it began. See it at your own risk when
you want to burn some attention span.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad,
though the color is not rich by any means.
Cinematographer Eduardo Serra, A.F.C./A.S.C., has been on a role of
late, lensing notable films including The Flower Of Evil (reviewed
elsewhere on this site), Girl With The Pearl Earring (both 2003) and
Kevin Spacey’s Bobby Darin biopic Beyond The Sea. He is in peak form and has some subtly in
its uses of light. This helps the
narrative a bit, but can only do so much to help. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix fares a bit better than the 2.0 version
with Pro Logic surrounds. The film was
a DTS and Dolby 5.1 release, but I doubt a DTS track here would not have helped
much. Pascal Esteve’s score is nothing
memorable and the film might as well have been musicless in some parts in how
it drags. The only extras are previews
for other Paramount DVDs from Paramount Classics theatrical origin.
- Nicholas Sheffo
