Claire (Juliette Binoche), an English professor in her 50s, is having a sexual relationship with a younger guy, Ludo (Guillaume Gouix). She wants it to become more serious, but he does not and stops answering her calls and unfriends her on social media. Claire creates a fake, younger, identity and makes contact with Ludo’s roommate, Alex (Francois Civil) in order to get closer to Ludo. Fairly quickly, Claire and Alex’s online relationship becomes more intense…
Originally intended to be out in a few months, this film’s release on Curzon Home Cinema has been brought forward. Presumably that’s not only because there are few competing releases but also because the subject of people only being able to interact online may strike a particular chord at this time.
However, as someone who has absolutely no interest in social media, I did struggle with the conceit and obsessive behaviour of both Claire and Francois. What there is to enjoy, though, is another tremendous performance from Binoche, who dominates the movie. By far, the most effective scenes for me were her exchanges with her therapist, Dr Bormans (Nicole Garcia) as she tells her story in flashback. That is partly because the doctor’s reaction to Claire’s behaviour is pretty similar to mine.
It does seem like the film has nowhere left to go as the final act starts but there follows a couple of neat twists.
Worth watching for Binoche and enough other pleasures to make it worthwhile.
Rating: 7 out of 10