Don't be fooled by the low rating. Totally loved this film. Very realistic. This is not a Hollywood film with a lot of special effects. So if you are looking for a fairy tale, move on to the next film in queue. The cast is absolutely superb - very real life, all very likable. I loved the three main characters played by Benoit, Charlotte and Chiara. It is hard to dictate whom and how to love, how to fall out of love. And the film is about emotional turmoil involved in chance meetings and close-knit triangles. The ending is open to interpretation. And last, but not least, I totally and completely disagree with other reviewers who mentioned that the cast is sub-par (so far from reality). Great film.

This film starts off a little slow but gradually picks up place and momentum.The main protagonists in this film are two sisters and a tax accountant. The two sisters run an antique shop in a small town in France. The tax accountant visits the town for a business meeting meets his soul mate (the older of the two sisters played by Gaisborough) at the beginning of the film. They agree to to meet in Paris but he misses the meeting and she leaves for the US.By chance, the younger sister has tax troubles and goes to the accountants office and meets him and he helps her and they eventually fall in love. He winds up marrying the younger sister. The main tension in the film is in the fact that he doesn't know he married the sister of his soul mate and it's not revealed until about half way through the film. As the film progresses and the original connection and relationship between the accountant and the older sister is slowly revealed to both characters and they commence an affair behind the younger sisters back.The film ends tragically.The pace of the film is a little slow at the beginning but picks up pace as the story progresses. A few plot holes remain but ultimately don't detract from the quality of the film. The film is about finding a true love and soul mate (the accountant and the older sister) and finding true happiness and stability (the accountant and the younger sister) and having to chose between the two.

Like a number of "typically" French films I see, Benoit Jacquot's "3 Hearts," is no different. When questioned after watching such films, I invariably remark, "that was very French!" While I realize that stereotyping is not a very admirable pursuit, I still must argue that there is a certain percentage of French people (don't ask me what the percentage is)whom continue to embrace the apparent national pastime—and that of course is the pursuit of "passion." Every few minutes we're reminded (through its galling overuse of a few measures of its repetitious soundtrack) that the film is supposed to be some kind of thriller. The main character is Marc, a government tax inspector, who occasionally must take the train to provincial towns near Paris, to perform audits. One night, after missing his train, he meets on the streets, Sylvie, an attractive woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. Perhaps it's their mutual love for nicotine or simply an unconscious recognition that they're both lonely hearts, that the two make such an immediate connection.Unfortunately, after they agree to meet at a park in Paris the next day, Marc has a panic attack and gets there two hours late, a few minutes after Sylvie has left. Sylvie ends up agreeing to go with her husband to Minneapolis but the story hasn't ended. Through the greatest of coincidences, Marc runs into Sylvie's sister, Sophie, who's having trouble with the books to the family antique business. Just like Sylvie, I found it difficult to understand why the sister now falls for the nondescript Marc. Funny how Marc doesn't look at the top of the stairs on the walls at Sophie and Sylvie's house since he would have easily deducted that Sophie was Sylvie's sister. It's only after an engagement that he stumbles on Sophie's computer where he comes face to face with Sylvie, who is trying to connect with her sister, via a Skype session.The rest of the tedious "3 Hearts" depicts the arrival of Sylvie for Marc and Sophie's wedding. Wouldn't you know it, but Marc and Sylvie end up hooking up for some passionate goings on. But that's all you get: passion…and nothing else. Not one iota of character development involving any of the principals. Director Jacquot is simply content to smugly ask for gold stars due to the intensity of Marc and Sylvie's desire to copulate like enraptured bunny rabbits in heat. And to emphasize how "passionate" these neurotic lovers are, instead of going back to his wife and child, Marc walks off into the sunset with Sylvie!I forgot to mention there is a sub-plot: Marc discovers that the mayor of the provincial town he's been auditing has been cooking the books. There is some indication that the powerful man may try and retaliate against Marc, but he doesn't seem to care (due to his obsession with Sylvie). The sub-plot goes nowhere when the whole issue of the Mayor's criminality, never resolved."3 Hearts" keeps your interest only insofar as to how the love triangle will resolve. When we find out next to nothing about Marc and Sylvie after they resume their passionate canoodling, one realizes that only the most passionate of Francophiles will find this "passionfest" something quite compelling. For others such as myself, the pursuit of passion as only a means to an end, is no substitute for true intellectual enlightenment.

Unfortunately, this movie did not work well for me. I must admit I don't really like romances, but I can appreciate it when it's well done. The story is quite weak. It doesn't really grab the attention, it does not really convince. It tries to build up a tension (music is anticipating) to something that might happen later on in the movie; but the movie-makers placed importance and weight where I did not experience much importance and weight. Poelvoorde does not play bad, but the character he must play does not give him much room to play well; probably the character itself does not work sufficiently. I know Poelvoorde can play well, having seen him in his first film... Best acting is by Deneuve though she has not a big role. All in all this was a disappointing movie for me.