A Private Life (Vie Privee) (15)

American psychiatrist Dr Lilian Steiner practises in Paris, where she navigates her patients' needs and maintains haphazard relationships with her son Julien and ophthalmologist ex-husband Gabriel. Out of the blue, Lilian receives a telephone call from Valerie Cohen-Solal, daughter of her patient Paula, who has missed her last three sessions. Valerie reveals her mother is dead. Lilian refuses to believe her patient was suicidal and she leaps to the conclusion that Paula must have been murdered.

LondonNet Film Review

A Private Life (15) Film Review from LondonNet

An American in Paris waltzes through an increasingly convoluted murder mystery in director Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language thriller. Co-written by the filmmaker, Anne Berest and Gaelle Mace, A Private Life invites Jodie Foster to jive between highly fluent French and English as a jittery, cynical heroine who is convinced that one of her patients was murdered by someone close to them. Foster plays American psychiatrist Dr Lilian Steiner, who practises in Paris, where she navigates her patients’ needs and maintains haphazard relationships with her son Julien (Vincent Lacoste), who has a newborn, and ophthalmologist ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil)…

Out of the blue, Lilian receives a telephone call from Valerie Cohen-Solal (Luana Bajrami), daughter of her patient Paula (Virginie Efira), who has missed her last three sessions. Valerie reveals her mother is dead and invites Lilian to the wake. At the reception, Paula’s conductor husband, Simon (Mathieu Amalric), publicly rages against the shrink and she flees.

It transpires that Paula took her own life with pills prescribed by Lilian and Simon holds the psychiatrist responsible for his loss. Curiously, the deceased left behind a cryptic message, scribbled on the prescription. Based on confidential interactions with Paula, Lilian refuses to believe her patient was suicidal and she leaps to the conclusion that Paula must have been murdered. “I know things about her I shouldn’t know,” Lilian blurts. Nagging suspicion intensifies when someone breaks into Lilian’s apartment and ransacks her library of Minidisc patient recordings. The most recent session with Paula goes missing. Despite her professional misgivings, Lilian approaches a hypnotist (Sophie Guillemin) to unlock her memories of Paula in case a vital clue is filed deep within her subconscious.

A Private Life is a slow-burning whodunnit elevated by Foster’s casting as a tightly wound workaholic, who vows to prove she didn’t overlook the warning signs that a patient was planning to commit suicide. The two-time Oscar winner pinballs between supposition and suspicion and her nuanced performance repeatedly flatters the film. Scriptwriters have a sharp ear for poetic dialogue. When Paula reclines on Lilian’s couch in flashback, she reflects on conflicted emotions about her husband. “It’s as if he always has a knife in his voice. And a gun in his eyes,” confides the patient. The casting of Amalric, a former Bond villain, marks him as a usual prime suspect.

Foster shares simmering screen rapport with Auteuil. The frisson of familiarity between the two actors is palpable, climaxing in a heated embrace fuelled by free-flowing wine and bonhomie. As Lilian and Gabriel’s relationship heats up, Zlotowski’s picture noticeably cools and the grand denouement feels underwhelming after 103 minutes on Lilian’s couch.

– Sarah Lee