When I see the names Mattiau Amalric, Karin Viard, and Maiwenn as principal players in a film I've never heard of (and which turns out to be two years old) I'm happy to trust in what I know of them based on films in which I have seen them and which I have enjoyed and all three have a decent backlog with in the case of Maiwenn and Amalric director as well as acting credits on their respective CVs. Throw in Denis Podalydes and you have a formidable quartet so it's pity that all four chose to squander their talents in a piece of glossy fluff that does credit to no one involved. Essentially we're talking third-rate Chabrol in a highly scenic setting which is all it really has going for it. In a nutshell Amalric is a latter-day History Man, teaching creative writing as a Major with a Minor is Sex Education with his nubile female students, one of whom disappears following a liaison with him in the first reel cue the girl's 'stepmother' an undercover cop happy to sleep with Amalric to get a conviction and cause ripples in his incestuous relationship with his live-in sister Karin Viard. The whole thing is a terrible mish-mosj but the scenery is good and the actors better than this trash deserves.

A more than decent attempt at a thriller mystery. Our main actor might not be the most likable person (far from it), but that doesn't mean we have to hate him. Actually the actor (very well known in France) does a great job showing more than one side on him. And even if you can see where this is going (or what actually happened), this ride is well worth going along with.It might be a bit too long and the relationships are stretched a bit (though never feel fake or false, no pun intended), but the overall message is delivered. Great photography, with a very slow moving pace, that might not be everyones taste.

At one point in this movie, the protagonist, a creative writing college professor (Matthieu Americ) with a taste for his nubile female students, gives a creative writing exercise where he tells students to write something based, not on character or story, but on a "landscape". That's kind of what this movie itself is. The plot and characters are definitely very serviceable with the professor suspected of being behind the disappearance of a female student he is seen in the carnal company of at the beginning, and neither the viewer or the perhaps the protagonist himself (who is given to severe "headaches") really sure of his guilt. Instead of being the usual married French cad though, the professor lives in an isolated mountain villa in a rather incestuous relationship with his sister (Karen Viard), who might be propping up his career via her sexual relationship with the college dean. Meanwhile, the suspicions swirling around don't stop him from getting sexually involved with the missing girl's alluring stepmother (Maiwenn LeBesco) or being pursued by the hot-to-trot daughter of a big university donor (Sara Forestier), who wants him to give her "private lessons" in, uh, creative writing.This movie though, despite being basically a TV film, really benefits the most from its great "landscape". It is set in a wintry French alpine village and has great crisp cinematography (I don' know if it's digital, but if so digital has come a LONG way). The natural beauty is well matched by the incredible modern glass architecture of the mountain college where a lot of this takes place. Besides having the most beautiful female students I've ever seen, the professor also teaches in probably the nicest classroom that ANY creative writing professor has ever taught in.Americ is definitely a talented and charismatic actor, who is very big in French film and has even left France to play James Bond villains. He manages to make his coed-molesting--and possibly murderous--anti-hero genuinely likable. But the OTHER part of the gorgeous "landscape" here frankly is the sumptuous female bodies on display. Sara Forstier is so irresistibly sexy that it beggars belief that the professor even tries. Maiwen LeBesco is also really something. It IS pretty funny though that she seems to be the only French actress I know of to use a "body double" for nude scenes given that her little sister, the equally voluptuous actress Isild LeBesco, only leaves her clothes ON in a movie if it's absolutely necessary to the plot (maybe Isild is her older sister's "body double"?). Although she's more famous (largely as the result of her shotgun teen wedding to director Luc Besson and appearances in a number of his films), I've never personally thought Maiwenn was nearly as talented as her sister, but she's really good here.I don't want to take anything away from Americ or the very decent (if not always believable) story, but it is the "landscape--of natural scenery, modern architecture, and, yes, female flesh--that real makes this movie.

Three quarters of the way through the film, I decided that everyone had misunderstood it and the filmmakers had their tongues firmly in their collective cheek. And therein lies the problem. I was wrong, as a late twist reveals. This film wants to be taken seriously. That tonal inconsistency is a deal breaker. Matthieu Almeric is miscast and everyone else, even the wonderful Sarah Forestier, for the most part wasted. Only Maiwen gets to have some fun with her character. For most of its running time it plays like a very subtle comedy, a kind of "Scream XX" for the psychological thriller genre, with a cast of characters straight out of a cheap melodrama. The philandering professor, his incestuous sister, the endless nubile students and the drop-dead gorgeous bereaved mother. Phillipe Djian, who wrote the novel on which this screenplay is based, also wrote Betty Blue, the novel. That's relevant because Betty Blue the movie is a lot better than Betty Blue the novel. The novel reads like a bad teenage fantasy. That film is in most ways true to the book but it succeeds because it sets the right tone from the start and is perfectly cast. Love is the Perfect Crime has neither advantage, the director simply not understanding the subject matter. I read recently that Paul Verhoeven is planning to adapt a Djian novel. Now that might be worth seeing.