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Review

Charlotte Rampling is a revelation as a woman emotionally adrift after the disappearance of her husband in François Ozon’s stately, devastating character study. Marie and Jean are a happily married middle-aged couple that escape the city to their cottage retreat by the sea. One morning, Marie wakes up and finds Jean nowhere to be found. Did he drown? Is he lost? Did he off? With these questions swirling in her mind and heart, Marie is plunged into an emotional cauldron. Her friends, colleagues and a man who has romantic interest in her, are all unable to pull Marie out of her inner turmoil as answers are difficult to come by and the truth is even more difficult to accept. It’s almost a one-woman show as Rampling entrances the viewer not by what she says but how she thinks, reacts and feels A superb, subtle performance from an actress now enjoying a second wave of critically acclaimed work (Signs and Wonders (2000), Aberdeen (2000) after her successful younger days with films like The Damned (1969), Zardoz (1974) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). Ozon’s leisurely pacing and obsession for getting into the soul of a fragile woman make this psychological drama one of the most intense and satisfying films this year. (French with English subtitles)