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A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A young woman discovers that she's being watched by a Peeping Tom, an unsocial, unattractive, and creepy neighbor. Of course, this being a French film, she reacts by coming on to him. Yeah, right. The script is rather amateurish, particularly in the presentation of a subplot involving a murder investigation. Apparently French citizens have few rights when it comes to protection from police harassment. The ending is contrived, a clumsy attempt to tie everything together. Blanc is somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen except that he's deadly serious and angry with the world. Bonnaire is pretty and does pretty well as the victim-turned-seducer.

Monsieur Hire (1989)A simple movie with the protagonist and the viewer both made to be voyeurs. There is some pathos to the lonely man with some secret talents (like bowling) and some unbridled and unelaborated interests (staring at a woman through her open blinds as she dresses).But the movie suggests some true stupidity and/or willingness on the woman's part. She does not seem to be an exhibitionist, and yet she leaves herself exposed. At one point she is shocked to see the man watching. But then she gets involved with him. A boyfriend has a separate intrigue at work which complicates matters, and this isn't very well developed. And finally there is tragedy, and a kind of lyrical/awkward final scene.Director Patrice Leconte has a curiously unsensational way of treating some of these very private subjects. You want to like his films very much. They have small casts and try to deal with psychology instead of just sensation and plot. A better entry into his style might be "Intimate Strangers" from 2004, also starring Sandrine Bonnaire.You can like the intentions here, and like the mood, and maybe forgive yourself for watching the man watch the woman (that is, watch the woman yourself), but it drags as if this is enough. And it's not. And if you're looking for salacious, don't get the wrong idea. It's pretty clean voyeurism. Disappointing.

Lonely, middle-aged tailor Monsieur Hire (Michel Blanc) compulsively peeps out his apartment window into the apartment of the pretty blonde Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire) across the way. She finds out and seems to find it a little exciting. But this opening doesn't give a clue where this spellbinding story of passion and betrayal is headed.Meanwhile, someone has murdered a young girl and dumped her body in the park near where Hire lives. The detective has his eye on Hire, perhaps because Hire is considered a weirdo in the neighborhood. He doesn't like other people and they don't like him (except, oddly, at the bowling alley).The story centers around the emerging relationship between Hire and Alice as they meet and get to know each other. Complicating things is the fact that she is engaged to be married to someone else. The motives behind their words and actions are not clear at first and even seem contradictory.Plot points are doled out slowly at first and the early part of the film requires patience. But towards the end, as a clear picture emerges of what is actually happening, the movie builds to a nail-biting conclusion and as intensely emotional a finish as I've ever seen.The final slow-motion coda put a lump in my throat. If you care about stories of profound love, you should see this.

Patrice Leconte is one of my favorite French directors. His films seem to be be very similar in that they are intense character studies of the two central characters. My favorites are Girl on a Bridge, Man on a Train, and this, one of his earliest dramatic efforts.This film was my introduction to Leconte, and I have seen it 3 or 4 times over 10plus years. It never fails to engage. The acting is fantastic, especially Michel Blanc as the lonely man, & Sandrine Bonnaire, but also minor parts such as Andre Wilms as the police inspector. Everything is near perfect, camera work, editing, the pacing, the music, as other posts have well-articulated.Coincidentally, I had just previously re-watched Intimate Strangers, another more recent Leconte film with Sandrine Bonnaire. I had forgotten she was the Femmma Fatale in Mr. Hire. It was interesting seeing her in these films, as they are about 15 years apart. It is another good role and performance from Bonnaire, but definitely lighter fare compared to Mr. Hire.