Partir (2009) Reviews

• Stay With This One

  writers_reign2010-07-17

  Kristin Scott Thomas is among the finest English actresses of her generation so it's too bad for us Brits that she prefers to live and work in France. Leaving is a sort of hybrid of Lady Chatterley's Lover and elements of Scott Thomas' own life; the plot has an upper-class woman falling in love with a handyman and if her doctor husband (Yvan Attal) is not physically crippled he is emotionally dead. Scott Thomas herself moved to France at nineteen, married a French gynaecologist with whom she had three children, divorced in 2005 and had a well documented affair with a younger layman. It is, of course, all in the wrist and in this case wrists plural, those on the arms of writer-director Corsini, Scott Thomas and the two men in her life, husband Yvan Attal and lover Sergi Lopez. Thomas is simply outstanding maintaining the standard she set in such recent French gems as Tell No One and I've Loved You So Long. Both men are accomplished actors and offer fine support despite knowing full well that it is Thomas' film. With luck she'll get the Cesar/Oscar she so richly deserves.

• Painfully realistic...

  Siamois2009-12-21

  Director Catherine Corsini doesn't pull any punch depicting a love triangle of sort in Partir. Suzanne is a typical bourgeois wife of Samuel, a well-connected doctor. Children, big house, steady comfort, Suzanne has everything she could want, except passion. One day, she meets Ivan who make ends-meet working odd jobs and something clicks. This very simple, very classic story is made worthwhile for several reasons. The main one being Kristin Scott Thomas delivering yet again a masterful performance. The role is tailor- made for this actress who knows how to subtly let us share the confused state of mind her character is in. Sergi Lopez and Yvan Attal are also good, although their roles are understandably much less challenging. Where the screenplay shines is by not spoon-feeding us with justifications or condemnations for the characters. Suzanne's husband does seem somewhat boring, but he's not some evil one-dimensional character. And her new romantic interest Yvan is not an adventurous "alpha male". In fact, although Yvan does represent the freedom Suzanne never had thanks to his bohemian lifestyle, he seems like a somewhat vulnerable man and not terribly versed in "romancing" a woman. She seems more like the one pursuing him to enter this relationship. Speaking of relationships, this is also where the movie shines. We're never entirely sure if what Suzanne is experiencing is true love, or rather if she's just looking for a way out from her husband and lifestyle. The director doesn't hold anything back, showing the vulnerability of each of the three character, how selfish they can be, discarding their responsibilities, lying and justifying reprehensible acts against each others. This film is fascinating because, in the true tradition of French cinema, it goes for realism. You've seen some of these things happen around you, you may have lived through them. Watch this movie with a few people and you're likely to find people split. Some might sympathize with Suzanne, others with her husband, others with her lover. Yet others might sympathize with all three or none of them. In short, Catherine Corsini is not trying to tell you what you should think and lets you make your own impressions throughout the events depicted. There is joy and pain in relationships because relationships, like us, aren't perfect. This is one such story, showcasing the imperfections. My rating would be higher had we been provided with more context. We barely get a glimpse of Suzanne before she meets Yvan. As well, the conclusion did seem sudden and over-the- top to me. Lastly, I feel the husband and children could have used a few more minutes of screen time.

• economical drama about infidelity and its consequences

  gregking42010-07-17

  Catherine Corsini's drama about infidelity and its consequences follows hot on the heels of Mademoiselle Chambon and I Am Love, two other recent similarly themed dramas from Europe. Kristin Scott Thomas (from I've Loved You So Long, etc) plays Suzanne, a happily married forty-something mother of two adolescent children. Her husband Samuel (played by noted Israeli actor/ director Yvan Attal) is a successful surgeon, well off, respected and politically well connected. When Suzanne decides that she wants to return to work as a physiotherapist after having spent the past fifteen years raising her two children, Samuel is supportive and decides to redevelop the garage into an office and clinic for her. He hires family friend Remi (Bernard Blancan) to oversee the construction work. But Remi is busy and subcontracts the job to Ivan (Sergi Lopez, best remembered as the villain of Pan's Labyrinth). Suzanne finds herself attracted to the swarthy, sweaty Spaniard, and begins a torrid affair with him. She announces that she plans to leave her family to live with Ivan, a decision that tears apart the once loving and close-knit family, and has tragic consequences. Scott Thomas' terrific performance as the passionate Suzanne, who has grown bored with her comfortable life, drives this French drama. Her facial expressions brilliantly and silently convey a gamut of expressions, from joy, happiness, ecstasy, to guilt, determination and doubt, and we can almost see what she's thinking. And her ability to speak French perfectly is tremendous. Attal (from Rush Hour 3, Munich, etc) is also good as Samuel; initially he seems a sympathetic character, but he quickly reveals himself capable of extreme cruelty in the face of Suzanne's betrayal. Lopez is also very good. Although Leaving shares a number of thematic similarities with the recent I Am Love, it is a better film. It is more engaging and emotionally satisfying than that pretentious, self-consciously arty and ultimately dull drama. Gaelle Mace's script is sparse, stripped back to the essentials, and Corsini's direction is suitably economical. There's not a wasted moment, or hint of flab or unnecessary padding in its brief but intense 85 minutes.

• Give love it's due, or else!

  doug-6972009-09-16

  I saw this at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and I can say now, even with half the festival still to go, this will be the best film I'll see. In fact, I think it could be my favourite film all year Kristin Scott Thomas plays a well-to-do-wife, Suzanne, with a happy home life who falls in love with a handyman, Ivan, and gives up everything for him. It's the quality of the movie that makes it outstanding. This is a movie without a single clichéd or false emotion. There's a scene where Suzanne is with her lover, I think the first time, but she has been with him too long and needs to return home to her family. She says, "I think you'll have to order me to leave." He then, half-jokingly, says, "Leave." I'm no expert on acting, but as a viewer I knew exactly what Suzanne was thinking at that moment. I could see that it hurt her to hear him telling her to leave, even in jest. And then she suddenly realizes, at that moment, that the reason it hurt was that she was in love with him. I'm sure I saw all this in Ms. Thomas' face and that has to be great acting. But the entire movie felt absolutely real. The husband acted typically possessive, but in the case of this movie, it wasn't exaggerated for effect and I even felt some sympathy for him. The husband's lawyer confesses discomfort at how the husband wants to proceed against her and says, "She's my friend too." You wouldn't hear a lawyer say that in any Hollywood movie. Even the love scenes, which were still sexy, but were realistic. More importantly, Suzanne's obsession isn't handled in any typical, clichéd manner. You're never entirely certain if she's in love or just in lust. You're never entirely sure if she's not just in the middle of a mid-life crisis and slightly unstable. I think the movie is saying that it doesn't really matter. Catherine Corsini directed and wrote the movie. A male director, like the doomed husband in the movie, might not have understood that love is love, regardless of the cause.

• Powerful themes, painfully restrained despite the emotional highs

  secondtake2011-03-26

  Leaving (2009) A very dry slice of life, and a common and awful slice of life--the breakup of a seemingly okay marriage. It's a very modern, well off, pan European series of events, mostly taking place in the south of France. There is devastation, violence, sex, hurt children, hurt friends, and mostly a lot of pain between the ecstasies. And I suppose that's how it really goes down. Fair enough. But not necessarily the most engaging movie. I'm not talking about being entertained, but about being lifted, or made to rethink something serious, or maybe even be swept away in something lyrical. Not so. This is deliberately (or not) a study in realism, and yet a glossy one, with some neat ends tied up here and there. I mean, it may be a series of fairly realistic events, but this is a simplified, "nice" world. The one really solid reason to watch this is the stellar, nuanced, deeply felt performance by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas. The range of moods is amazing, and moving, if you can get absorbed otherwise.