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<\/p>\nLiving in Paris, American\/French psychiatrist Lilian Steiner\u2019s (Jodie) life is spiralling. A patient she has seen for eight years, Pierre Hallan (Noam Morgensztern), who originally came to see her to quit smoking, abruptly cancels all future appointments. Pierre claims one visit to a hypnotist cured what Steiner couldn\u2019t and he maintains that he is 40,000 Euros out of pocket because of her. That is his calculation of the cost of his visits to Steiner, plus that of cigarettes smoked during the period he has been seeing her.<\/p>\n
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Of far greater import though is the untimely death of a 47-year-old patient, Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira), whom Steiner had treated for nine years. Steiner is left blindsided and devastated. She can\u2019t stop crying. But the situation is about to get a whole lot worse when it appears that medication that Steiner prescribed could have killed Paula.<\/p>\n
Paula\u2019s daughter, Val\u00e9rie (Lu\u00e0na Bajrami), wants answers, while Paula\u2019s husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric) is enraged when Steiner attends their family home. As Steiner\u2019s tears continue, she visits her ex-husband, eye specialist Gabriel Haddad (Daniel Auteuil), looking for a cure for her incessant weeping. When that doesn\u2019t work, cynical though she may be, Steiner turns to the hypnotist who allegedly cured Pierre of his smoking addiction.<\/p>\n
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What emerges from that consultation is extraordinary \u2013 a strong link between Steiner and her dead patient Paula in a past life. Further, Steiner reaches the conclusion that Paula didn\u2019t commit suicide from a medication overdose, but was murdered. The culprit appears to be either Paula\u2019s daughter or Paula\u2019s husband.<\/p>\n
With her own ex-husband on board, Steiner \u2013 who also has an awkward relationship with their son Julien (Vincent Lacoste) \u2013 digs deeper. What a tangled web we weave. And I have only given you the expurgated version. There are several other threads to this comedic psychological thriller.<\/p>\n
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Written by Anne Berest and Rebecca Zlotowski, in collaboration with Ga\u00eblle Mac\u00e9, there is complexity to A Private Life, which requires concentration to follow. For an experienced psychiatrist, Steiner seems to have many unresolved issues. Foster plays her as intense and unrelenting. Ex-husband Gabriel is genuinely delighted that Steiner has stepped back into his life. Daniel Auteuil is far more laid back in his portrayal of Gaby. For her part, Val\u00e9rie comes across as needy. There is a desperation about Lu\u00e0na Bajrami\u2019s realisation of her. Mathieu Amalric\u2019s actions as Simon appear to show that he is hiding his true self.<\/p>\n
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While intriguing to a point, I felt the movie went too far \u2013 introduced too many elements \u2013 and so all but tied itself up in knots. I\u2019d go as far as to say confusion reigns. That is partly due to the engorged script and Rebecca Zlotowski\u2019s direction. I found myself thinking \u201ccome now, enough already\u201d as my belief in what was unfolding wavered. For a while I was intrigued; then I was just frustrated. Nor did I find the injected humour all that funny.<\/p>\n
It was good to see Jodie Foster back on screen, this time in a French role, but I wasn\u2019t totally sold on her latest cinematic dalliance. Rated M, A Private Life scores a 6 out of 10.<\/p>\n
——<\/h4>\n
Jacqui Hammerton’s thoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n Jodie Foster is the best thing about this underwhelming French film; the doyen actress of 60 years in the industry looks great and comes across superbly authentic using her non-native French. Sadly, the vehicle fails her, and us. I would have found the main character of the psychiatrist more credible as she considers the suspicious death of a client if she hadn\u2019t been so erratic, easily led and borderline weird, distracted by alcohol, cigarettes and sex with her ex.<\/p>\n Charming Parisian settings are not enough to compensate for a lack of energy, tempting clues and a breakthrough \u201cAha!\u201d ending.<\/p>\n A Private Life scores a 5 out of 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Living in Paris, American\/French psychiatrist Lilian Steiner\u2019s (Jodie) life is spiralling. A patient she has seen for eight years, Pierre Hallan (Noam Morgensztern), who originally came to see her to quit smoking, abruptly cancels all future appointments. Pierre claims one visit to a hypnotist cured what Steiner couldn\u2019t and he maintains that he is 40,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":170297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[799],"tags":[11572,3,170,11573],"class_list":["post-170289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-a-private-life","tag-drama","tag-french","tag-jodie-foster"],"yoast_head":"\n