Love Crime (2010)

Rare for a mysterious thriller set in the high stakes business realm, Love Crime (Crime d'Amour) is dominated by women with the men relegated to paltry supporting roles. Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is on the fast track to the elite tier of her international business firm as chief of their Paris office. She is confident, sexy, knows how to work the room, and has complete faith in her subordinate Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). Not only is Christine a business mentor to Isabelle, she also assumes the role of life coach, close confidant, and in a few moments, possible temptress.

Isabelle is also on the fast track but is severely overshadowed by the extroverted Christine. She has original ideas which win the firm big clients but Christine will frequently claim those ideas as her own to help her case for promotion. Christine does not necessarily view this as the immoral thing to do. She is the boss and ideas flow to the top. Plus, any success merited to Christine will naturally help Isabelle's career; however, Isabelle must never forget who is truly in charge.

While attempting to prove herself outside of Christine's shadow, Isabelle sparks a feud between the two careerists with drastic consequences. So begins an intricate chess match of hints, allegations, innuendo, and dramatic backroom conversations. Christine attempts to squash her former protégé back into obscurity and Isabelle maneuvers to step into her own spotlight subverting her malicious boss.

If you have a weakness for 'who dunnits' or intricate true crime methodologies, then Love Crime is your guilty pleasure come true. However, if you have only passing interest in the above mentioned genre, then you can take or leave this film. The script is sharp, the acting is a pleasure to watch, and the intense, hushed French conversations will keep you immersed, but there is not much more to it.

Isabelle's relationship with Christine reminded me a bit of the earlier Ludivine Sagnier role in Swimming Pool, but instead of Charlotte Rampling, this time you get a much more assertive Kristin Scott Thomas. There are also direct reminders of The Business of Strangers with Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles.

Sagnier redeems herself in this audience member's eye from her disastrous work in The Devil's Double. While that was a good film, her character and acting drastically impacted its plausibility. Plausibility is also a factor here in Love Crime. There are overreactions you would never see in reality but the intricate follow through in the malevolent details make up for a good portion of disbelief.

Fmovies: This is the last film directed by the late Alain Corneau, who is most famous for his magnificent film TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE (ALL THE MORNINGS OF THE WORLD) of 1991, which introduced the magic of the viola da gamba to a wider audience than it had ever before known in modern times. (It has a deeper, more resonant, and more mellow sound than the cello, and is my favourite string instrument. Bach's 'cello' works were really written for the viola da gamba. Everyone should hear Paolo Pandolfo's recording of Bach's 'cello suites' on the proper instrument.) In this last offering of his oeuvre, Corneau explores mortal combat between female business executives, those daring ones who have penetrated the glass ceiling and are now living and struggling inside it. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Christine, a ruthless egotist who will do anything to get what she wants. She is cruel, heartless, narcissistic, and more vicious than a cobra. Working in a position below Christine is Isabelle, played by Ludivine Sagnier, whose evolution during the course of the film from a sweet, trusting creature of traditional femininity into a fighter and a killer is an amazing screen transformation. When Isabelle is publicly humiliated by Christine, she snaps. One of them has to go. The claims that this is a film noir are true. Noir is not dead, and the rare true modern versions of it are often little masterpieces, as this film is. The director does not stray off piste, but keeps us focused on the essentials with relentless determination. We never learn why Isabelle was sweet to begin with, and we never learn why Christine is so heartless. Where they came from, what their early experiences were, how they became what they are, are subjects which are entirely ignored. In this film it is action, action, action. But instead of 'action' meaning the ridiculous car crashes and explosions of so many so-called 'action films', here we have real human action. With women as the characters, 'action' does not have to constitute external phenomena as is the case with men. For women, 'action' is the deadly silent conflict between personalities, and how they outwit each other. This is a true 'psychological thriller', whereas many claims of that kind are made by films which are not all that psychological. Strategy and tactics are not exclusively male concerns expressed externally through wars. They are just as important to women, expressed internally as quiet, deadly, psychological combat. Watch and learn!

Apart from saying that this movie is about competition between two ambitious female executives, I don't plan to get into the plot. The strength of the movie lies in the performances of the principals, Kristin Scott Thomas as the ruthless senior executive, and Ludivine Sagnier as her imaginative young assistant. Ms. Scott Thomas, English born but a long-time resident of France, seems to appear in an unending stream of British, French and American movies. This an unusual role for her but she is an accomplished actress and carries it off with her usual skill. The younger Ms. Sagnier is also splendid in an equally demanding part. Eventually, "Love Crime" becomes an intricately plotted murder mystery which, at least for me, is unconvincing. But I enjoyed the ride.

Love Crime fmovies. I enjoyed this movie very much, as I usually enjoy French movies, whether they are comedies or dramas. The look of this film is impeccable, all interiors are exquisitely designed and of top quality as is the photography and the lighting, as perfect as they can get nowadays. The acting is superb and the pacing flawless. I just found among the dubious happenings, a most obvious flaw: Anyone will see immediately that a piece of cloth that was cut quite sharply with an Exacto knife, will get a sharp edge, a look totally different from a piece of the same fabric torn by accident, like getting the fabric caught on a nail or any sharp corner, accident that will practically destroy the edge of that fabric, leaving it completely unraveled. To me that is the most flagrant mistake in the whole script. Otherwise an excellent movie, quite absorbing and entertaining.

As someone who firmly believes that Ludivine Sagnier and Kristin Scott Thomas are two of the finest actresses working today in any country, watching them go head-to-head against each other was obviously something I was going to be looking forward to. When it came to Love Crime, the story lacked a little bit of punch but seeing them go at it wasn't disappointing in the least. Both women are at the top of their game here, with Thomas taking some inspiration from Glenn Close in a very cold and cerebral Patty Hewes-esque role while Sagnier expertly utilizes her skill for vulnerability and sexuality.

I was hoping the whole thing would pack some real heat, so I was disappointed that it was a lot more slow-moving than I thought and wasn't as thrilling as something like this should be, but that's not to say that it didn't keep me interested throughout. The concept was pretty unique for this kind of film and it's hard to get into without bordering on spoiler territory, but I was very curious as to how the events were going to unfold. It felt like you knew what the endgame was, but seeing how the story got to that point was very intriguing. At the end of the day though, the film is all about being able to watch these great talents bounce off each other, with slightly less impact than I was expecting.

In Paris, Christine Rivière (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a tough executive of a French corporation. Her assistant Isabelle Guérin (Ludivine Sagnier) is an intelligent and cunning young woman needy of love and affection. When Isabelle is assigned to travel to Cairo with the lawyer Philippe Deschamps (Patrick Mille) to show her project, her idea is successful and Isabelle and Philippe have one night stand. Back in France, the senior management in the headquarter in Washington congratulates Christine for the project and she does not give the credit to Isabelle. Soon she notes that the manipulative Christine is using her to climb in the corporation. When her secretary Daniel (Guillaume Marquet) shows another project from Washington, Isabelle proposes improvements but does not show them to Christine. They have a meeting with the American executives and Isabelle is congratulated by them. Christine begins a war and humiliates Isabelle first using Philippe that has embezzled a large amount and is in her hands and then in a party. Isabelle plots a scheme and kills Christine at home. However the calculating Isabelle leaves many evidences in the crime scene incriminating herself and does not have an alibi.

"Crime d'amour" is another great French thriller with a good story of ambition, ingratitude and revenge. The two lead actresses, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, are wonderful and their duel is engaging. The theme, competition in a corporation, is a reality and the viewer will certainly identify characters with real real coworkers or ex-coworkers. The conclusion shows how dangerous is the secretary Daniel. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crime de Amor" ("Love Crime")