Leaving

Leaving (15) 2009 – 86 minutes

Leaving, the latest French movie from Director Catherine Corsini, is the story of a passionate love affair. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Suzanne, the archetypal bored, frustrated and lonely housewife. Her marriage to Samuel, a highly successful, local businessman and father of her two teenage children, is a sham; an endless routine of futile domesticity as Suzanne passes from one pointless chore to another. But then she meets Ivan (Sergi Lopez).

Ivan is a rough-hewn, Spanish labourer who has, ironically, been employed by Samuel to build a home clinic to reignite Suzanne’s career as a physiotherapist. Their attraction is instant and intensely physical and Suzanne is quickly overwhelmed by a series of emotions that she believed to be long dead. A guilt-ridden attempt to abandon this new found passion- including a full confession to Samuel – is doomed to failure and, despite her husband’s violent protestations, she leaves home to set up a new life.

Initially, Suzanne is reborn, her senses overwhelmed, her old self cast off with the shackles of her marriage, losing herself in the simple pleasure of a day at the beach. But they reckon without Samuel; spiteful and vindictive, he denies her access to their assets, blocking her credit cards and, memorably, reducing her to pawning her watch in a petrol station forecourt. With Ivan also denied work through Samuel’s influence with the mayor, the couple’s relationship starts to strain.
Scott Thomas is outstanding; a wife and mother in turmoil; passionate and out of control in spite of herself; smouldering and sensual but ridden with guilt; out of her depth but unwilling to seek calmer waters. Lopez is less convincing however, his passion restrained, his commitment less intense, his acceptance of their trial separation undermining the very premise of the film; he, master of his passion, she, victim of hers.

Samuel (Yvan Attal) matches Scott Thomas punch for punch. He too loses himself but in spiteful revenge, reducing himself at one point, to locking Suzanne up and physically restraining her from leaving. Victim of his own bourgeois pride, he plots his revenge carefully, maliciously reducing her to poverty and revealing a depth of emotion all too absent in their relationship.

The direction is sure; the mood intense, the atmosphere oppressive. Quite why Ivan is chosen as the object of Suzanne’s affection is never satisfactorily explained but then passion knows no bounds nor respects social backgrounds.

Verdict
A must-see for all Scott Thomas fans. 7/10

Dick Morgan
richardsmithmorgan.blogspot.com
July 2010