A Private Life

When a murder-mystery opens with the Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’, it’s fair to assume you’re about to see something blandly unoriginal or boldly unique.

So there’s something oddly appealing about the fact that Rebecca Zlotowski’s (Other People’s Children) understated thriller, A Private Life, stubbornly refuses easy definition – other than as a modest romp that allows Jodie Foster to perform in another language. And if you’ll watch Foster acting in anything, you’re gonna love watching her do it in French.

She is effortlessly interesting as Lilian Steiner, an imperious American psychiatrist living in Paris. Lilian’s got the whole sophisticated expat thing going on: beautiful scarves and cashmere coats, a multilingual family, a charming apartment filled with books. She’s also sharp enough to know that she’s been emotionally untethered for some time. But her life is busy and full, so she doesn’t truly feel the impact of her alienation until her longtime patient Paula (Virginie Efira) dies under mysterious circumstances.

Much to Lilian’s shock, Paula’s distraught daughter (Luàna Bajrami) and unhinged husband (Mathieu Amalric, underused) seem to blame her. She really has no choice, therefore, but to defend herself. And the only way to go about this is to thoroughly upend her carefully regimented existence, reconnect with her ex-husband Gabriel (a delightful Daniel Auteuil), and work with him to find out what really happened. Or so she insists, even as she ignores all logic to embark on a quest that slowly transforms from personal crisis to midlife evolution.

If you’ll watch Foster acting in anything, you’re gonna love watching her do it in French

Lilian’s minor adventure connects primarily because it’s such a joy to watch Foster, who attended LA’s Lycée Français as a child, interrogate suspects with bilingual superiority. With the light backing of Robin Coudert’s whimsical score, Lilian and Gabriel grow ever more enthusiastic as they cross the city in search of a solution. But even if they’re all in, we come to realise that the whodunit plotline is a red herring, and the Hitchcockian vibe pure MacGuffin.

As it turns out, Zlotowski, who co-wrote the script with Anne Berest, is entirely uninterested in either violence or evidence. She revels, instead, in the film’s interiors: warmly-shot libraries filled with wooden card catalogues, historic apartment buildings boasting wrought-iron details, intelligent brains determined to supercede sentimental hearts.

On the one hand, this approach is likely to disappoint anyone who feels they’ve been promised a proper murder mystery. On the other, it results in a different, and perhaps more valuable, reveal: an intimate, mature film about love, life, and professionals who approach their craft with quiet dedication. Encore de ça, s’il vous plait.

In US theaters Jan 16. In UK cinemas Mar 6.