Marie-Jo and Her Two Loves (2002)
Director: Robert Guédiguian
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Shot, like Guédiguian's other films, in and around Marseille and I'Estaque, and featuring his usual actors, this is otherwise rather atypical in jettisoning both the working-class milieu and a strong political context in favour of a straightforward tale of adultery. Ascaride plays an ambulance driver, still very much in love with builder husband Darroussin and devoted to her teenage daughter, but also passionately involved with harbour pilot Meylan. On the whole, until the absurd contrivance of the 'tragic' ending, the film is emotionally astute, striving to understand the characters in their difficult predicament, rather than pass easy judgment. At the same time, however, an uncharacteristic clumsiness - in the use of music, in the sometimes hackneyed notions of 'romance', in the daughter's dialogue - regularly disrupts the otherwise often intense mood, so that after a while, one simply begins to lose interest in the characters and their fate.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Robert Guédiguian
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Jacques Boudet, Yann Tregouët, Frédérique Bonnal full cast
Duration: 124 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now