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Load of rubbish!!

Just what I expected

Good movie but grossly overrated

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I must confess that I will watch anything with Emmanuelle Beart in it. Her first role of note was in Manon of the Spring as a shepherdess. A great movie featuring the young and beautiful Beart bathing nude at a spring. Here she is Nathalie, a prostitute hired by a woman to pose as a college student and seduce her philandering husband. The wife, Catherine(Fanny Ardent) hears a phone message from a girl sounding a bit to friendly to her man, Bernard(Gerard Depardieu). She pays Nathalie for the hook up and then meets with her after each encounter and has her describe in graphic detail, what Bernard did. Catherine is a cold woman who seems to get off in a voyeuristic way while listening to the sexual play by play of Nathalie and her soul mate. It is all very strange but Depardieu and Beart make it worthwhile as an interesting curiosity.

I watched this movie in theaters until 2005 although the movie was released in 2003. I didn't regret because the wait was worth.I think the plot and events are oriented for a mature audience; specifically for married couples who are passing hard times.The character of Natalie (or Nathalie X as subtitled here in México) is sexy, intriguing, and somewhat evil. She's a woman that may fool everyone with her lies and poses. Everything in the movie will deal with him as she will play angel and devil at the same time with the couple.The ending will leave everyone satisfied as it's an unexpected plot twist.I can recommend this movie for anyone who is looking for intelligent movies with mature situations. Those kind of situations that you may think never happen but that there's a possibility for them to come true...

If you do not like the French style of movies, without too many if any technical effects, relying mostly on acting and words rather than images this film risks to bore or disappoint. Otherwise, it is certainly worth a look, because it is a sophisticated relationship story, beautifully acted, and surprisingly interesting for the whole duration of the film. The main characters superbly played by Fanny Ardant and Gerard Depardieu are a mature and well-based couple going through an apparent fidelity crisis. She decides to hire a prostitute (Emmanuelle Beart) to become the new husband's relationship - and we may debate if this is just out of curiosity, if this is some kind of perversity, the willing to test her husband or the need of control. It's only a French movie that can present what comes next, most part of the film being spent with the young woman telling in many words the erotic encounters with the husband. The triangle develops into an unexpected direction when the two women befriend beyond the expected. The personal relation as well as the social comment asks questions about who is exploiting and about the relativity of the morality in this complex triangular relation. All this in a minor tone, interesting despite the high number of words and because of the good acting. A good movie, which could have been only French.

Although you should never really judge a film by its poster/DVD cover, it's hard not to when the poster in question has Emmanuelle Beart looking very saucy and beautiful indeed. The film centres around a failing marriage, mainly from the wife's perspective as she hires a prostitute for her husband and get the low down on his filthy little sexual fantasies. Despite this sordid little set up the film is charmingly refrains itself from gratuitous erotic scenes by only having descriptions of the acts that go on. This results in a very 'talky' film, but still a very steamy and effective one. Ardant leads the film, and manages to give an effective performance as a rejected wife in a passionless marriage, although at some points during the film the audience is left to contemplate her motives, and what exactly she is hoping to achieve from this experiment. Beart, is the real star, not only because she is stunning and makes it impossible to look away from the film, but she also offers a complex character, who is creating a complex character for herself within the film. At times she seems strong and in charge, and sometimes she comes across as weak and insecure. The slow and subtle way the bizarre friendship between the two leads evolves is well handled by director Anne Fontaine. The slow pace of the film is also a delight as it perfectly presents the flow of the marriage itself. Gerard Depardieu isn't used enough, we never get to know the character, and characters opinions contradict what we see of him. However since the film is told from the wife's perspective, this is understandable. Paris is represented with the usual busy streets and coffee shops with small apartments, but this is certainly not a film about locale. Overall the film is a joy to look at, and very well made. An underrated gem to sit down with on a quiet afternoon.