Film Review | Leaving

Leaving, out now on DVD (Director Catherine Corsini)

In recent years, Kristin Scott-Thomas has been vying with Juliette Binoche for the title of most accomplished bi-lingual actress.

Years of living in France has left her confident enough to take on the most complex roles in her adopted tongue requiring emotional gravitas and intensity. With her stunning performance in I’ve Loved You So Long she set the bar, a standard she matches in Leaving, in which she plays a married woman gripped by amour fou.

Married to a successful doctor in a pleasant, bourgeois Languedoc idyll, her character Suzanne hires a tough, down-to-earth odd-job man, Ivan, played by Sergi Lopez, to build a studio extension. Their animal attraction is instant and dangerous and the two embark on an all-consuming tryst, a series of meetings brought to the screen with unflinching eroticism. But the fallout – both to her family life and her own sanity, takes an inevitable downward spiral.

As Suzanne realises both how much her passion for Ivan has gripped her and what she risks throwing away by following her heart, it reduces her to an almost childlike state of shock and fear.

This is an intense film, illuminated by Scott-Thomas’ soul-baring acting. We highly recommend it, but perhaps not as part of a romantic evening at home with your loved one!

Monday, January, 17th at 12.05 by Katharine Barrau