A young couple find themselves left a large town house across the street by the old man who lived there. The only catch is that the current housemaid must be kept on for as long as she wants. However once their in the house not only is the housemaid clearly unhappy about the will but other facts from both Jean and Michelle's past come out.
I wasn't sure what this film was going to be about. It was passed to me as some sort of examination of love and lust etc and, suspecting a dull pretentious French art film I put it to the bottom of my list. I have now reached the bottom of my list and have watched it! It become clear that the billing was slightly off and this gradually turned into a sort of `Single White Female' / `Pacific Heights' hybrid with the couple being terrorised by the maid. This situation became a lot more evident when the couple begin to change towards one another by the facts they uncover about each other.
This makes for a standard thriller setting but the direction, the subtitles and the score all allude to give it a arty feel that it doesn't warrant. However towards the end the story begins to spin in a clever way you won't be able to guess the end like with the US thrillers I just mentioned. However the actual end of the film (last 5 minutes) is a little bit arty and is both open-ended and an observation/comment on the nature of love etc. This is where the art bit comes in and many may find this a poor end to a thriller (of sorts) however I found the end to be refreshing after what had really been a `by the numbers' thriller for the most part.
The cast were all good but I found the overuse of nudity to be wasteful of their talents and they seemed to overplay at times (especially Anglade). Boisson was good but she had the standard `creepy housemaid' role and just had to do that.
Overall this not a great thriller or a great art movie but it manages to be OK in both categories and is well worth a watch if you get the chance.
