A Private Life

I was really exited to see Jodie Foster in a role that is almost entirely in French (she swears in English) so I went to see A Private Life at the Broadway last night.  Her performance is even more captivating than I was expecting.  Dr. Lillian Steiner (Foster) is an American psychiatrist living in Paris.  When Paula (Virginie Efira), one of her long-term patients, commits suicide, her husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and daughter Valerie (Luana Bajrami) hold Lillian responsible because she used pills that Lillian prescribed to kill herself.  However, when Lillian discovers that the prescription was altered, she suspects that Paula was murdered by one of them and enlists her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) to help her find the truth.  At first I found the narrative to be incredibly messy, with subplots involving a disgruntled former patient (Noem Morgensztern), a son (Vincent Lacoste) with whom she has a distant relationship, and a hypnotist (Sophie Guillemin) who reveals the possibility of childhood trauma and a past life that informs the present, but there is a moment when everything comes together and what I thought was just a murder mystery becomes a psychological character study about a woman in the midst of a breakdown.  Even though some of the ideas are not explored as fully as they could have been and the tone is a bit inconsistent (some of the humor is very jarring), it is definitely a lot more complex and thought-provoking than some might suggest.  What everyone can agree on is that Foster is outstanding (her French is flawless) and gives a highly nuanced performance in which she is cold and detached but slowly becomes more and more vulnerable as she investigates a suspicious death and her own psyche.  The rest of the cast is great as well, especially Auteuil who has a surprisingly sexy and playful chemistry with Foster.  I also loved the stylish interiors (especially all of the spiral staircases) and the rainy autumnal exteriors around Paris.  This is the kind of movie that really appeals to me (but might not appeal to others) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.