Movie Review - The Page Turner

The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de Pages) (2007)

Starring Catherine Frot and Déborah François

Directed by Denis Dercourt
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

A young girl has spent her first ten years trying to become a great pianist.  When she goes to audition in an attempt to get into an elite Conservatory, she is distracted by the female headmaster of the school and, ultimately, fails to gain entry to the academy.  

Ten years pass and the young girl has grown into a somewhat bitter twenty-year old.  Mélanie has not touched the piano in over a decade, but she has not forgotten the pain that the headmaster's flippant attitude caused her.  Mélanie soon is hired by the headmaster's husband to watch after their son while his wife, Ariane, practices for an important concert.  Needless to say, Mélanie's infiltration of this household is carefully planned and she hopes to create a bit of turmoil much like Ariane caused her a decade ago.

Knowing this is a revenge-centered film, I was expecting something a bit more along the lines of Fatal Attraction.  However, this  French flick is very quiet and subdued, but surprisingly tense.  I kept waiting for Mélanie to make her mark on Ariane and her family, but she simply waits and bides her time, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce...and when she does, it's in a simple yet effective manner.

My major qualm with the taut 79-minute film is with the actress who portrays Mélanie.  Déborah François is rather bland...I fully understand that she wasn't supposed to be a psycho and was simply supposed to be a girl who has lived with an unrealized and squashed dream for a decade, but François plays Mélanie as such a wet blanket that it boggles my mind that Ariane and her family would want her around in the first place.  While that's a fault of the script (which also brings in an odd and unnecessary Sapphic undercurrent), François doesn't do anything to make her character any more interesting to watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-