Love Crime (7/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 107 minutes.

OK for children. In this complex interpersonal tale set in the corporate world, Ludivine Sagnier gets show that she can actually act with her shirt on (Susan Sarandon once said that when an actress takes off her shirt she is always upstaged by her breasts). In truth, although American audiences would not know it, the lovely Ludivine has been acting since she was 10 years old, before she first appeared topless before the camera. She might regret her topless romp in Swimming Pool (2003), because it was followed by several other movies that contain partial nudity. The result was that she was viewed by some American audiences akin to Brigitte Bardot.

Here, playing an upwardly mobile corporate executive, working for Kristin Scott Thomas, she exhibits chops of which the sexy Brigitte could only dream. Thomas gives a fine performance as an older senior executive in a multinational company doing complicated deals worldwide. While they start out as friends, they quickly descend into mortal enemies.

Director Alain Corneau, who also wrote with Natalie Carter, tells a story of the relationship between two people that starts out as a simple story of personal ambition and feuds within a corporation but slowly segues into a Byzantine tale of envy and revenge. Sagnier shows a range of emotion that reaches surprising depth.

While the film often drags, it is cleverly plotted and is ultimately rewarding. In French.