Bravo! The French have such a way of understatement and realism in their films. This one concerns a woman who accidentally walks into the wrong office instead of the psychiatrist that she has made an appointment to see. This wonderful film unfolds and develops into something, but you are not sure what until the end. Fabrice Luchini is so unassuming. I've only seen him in a few films, but he already has become a favorite of mine. If you choose to watch this film, there is a scene that is just him. It had me laughing in just the joy of watching him start to come out of his shell. He is one person that I would like to be able to meet in person. Sandrine Bonnaire in the film is attractive, but in an ordinary way, so again, it's realism. She doesn't need to wear a lot of make up, etc. to show that she is a very lovely woman. I liked watching her as she started to become more confident. I could only imagine what an American (yes, I'm American and I love American movies too) version would do to this quiet gem of a movie. My advise to the American film industry, don't try to remake this. It's doesn't need a Reese Witherspoon (not as attractive as Bonnaire I may add) or Scarlett Johansson (too much for the role) or a bumbling Tom Hanks (can't stand him to begin with) or God forbid, Jim Carrey or Will Farrell. Just leave this wonderful French gem alone.

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.

No special effects, no computer animation, no supernatural forces, no gloss, no predictability.Real life! There is nothing in the story that could not have happened somewhere some time. Told with beauty, humour, understatement, feelings, sensitivity. Leaving you time to think instead of throwing one visual effect after another at you. There is time for detail. Time for silence. Time for emotions. But you are never bored.The story is simple, yet you are grabbed by it and led into its mystery.The atmosphere marvellously represents real life in France at the time the film was made. No shining up. No simplification. This is real France. Sandrine Bonnaire and Fabrice Luchini are very convincing in their roles. The behaviour of the secretary is incredibly real.This is French cinema near its best.

Patrice LeConte's narrations always rely upon the loneliness of his characters and the complicated, hard-won way they connect with and comfort each other. In "Man on the Train" and "The Hairdresser's Husband," the incomparable Jean Rochefort plays the more outwardly gentle, hopeful and whimsical character, trying to establish common ground with his more explicitly troubled and fatalistic counterpart. Those two films end tragically; "Intimate Strangers" permits a more hopeful outcome. The character played by Fabrice Lucini--counter to the otherwise well-expressed views of TrevorAclea--offers continuous surprises with the unexpected expressiveness of his humble accountant's body and face. Look for him dancing in front of the mirror to Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour"; and consider his expression watching a former mistress walk away in the rain."Intimate Strangers" revolves around an interplay of honesty and concealment that will be familiar to anyone who has worked at being a couple. Some characters demand a fraudulent supremacy based on dependency, domination and sadism rather than the balance of power based on honesty, vulnerability and respect that the two main characters--and most of us--need to achieve intimacy. In this wonderful film, full of layered dangers and credible acts of courage, LeConte continues his masterful and immensely watchable exploration of the need and the fear of intimacy. The outcome creates an exhilaration absolutely rare in film, and absolutely admirable.