Love Crime [Crime d'amour] (2011)
Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier, and Patrick Mille
Directed by Alain Corneau
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
There is almost a guilty pleasure aspect to Love Crime, a French thriller that revolves around the rather headstrong and cutthroat business executive Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her younger protégé Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). Almost. As Christine's nastiness increases and Isabelle's tolerance of it decreases, it's obvious that things are eventually going to come to blows between the two ladies. However, despite the ludicrousness of the whole ordeal (which certainly aids the aforementioned guilty pleasure the film nearly succeeds at provides), the acting here is just much too over-the-top to be believed and it hinders the film much too much.
It didn't occur to me until the final five minutes of Love Crime that the film sets up its characters in an almost "pornographic" way (complete with a weird and undeveloped lesbian undertone that I still don't understand in the slightest). Kristin Scott Thomas's Christine is the dominatrix, wearing high heels and pants, exuding sex all the time, whereas Ludivine Sagnier's Isabelle wears glasses, frumpy jackets and dresses, and is the epitome of "boring [but sexy] librarian." The two flirt with each other often (because that's what French women do apparently) and they are set up like polar opposites, but both are overly sexualized to the nth degree. Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with being overly sexualized, but this film directed and co-written by Alain Corneau doesn't allow its characters to have any depth beyond their physical characteristics. There's nothing for these two actresses to sink their teeth into beyond the soap opera-type levels of drama, duplicity, and deviousness.
I like Kristin Scott Thomas quite a bit and her acting chops here unfortunately cause the young Ludivine Sagnier to look second-rate especially in a film that pits these two women against each other from the get-go. Admittedly, Sagnier is saddled with a ridiculous character in the first half of the film and manages to improve a bit as the film rolls on, but I'm not sure she's ready for the big time yet.
Love Crime is unfortunately not very good, but could have very easily jumped into the realm of enjoyable sleaziness. As it stands now, I'm sure there are late night Cinemax movies that tell this same tale with substantially more nudity, all-out cheesy acting, and a perhaps more believable plot that would probably be more enjoyable to watch.
The RyMickey Rating: C-
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