Review: A Private Life is a Public Delight

Courtesy of TIFF

Nobody truly knows what’s going on in another person’s head, however, Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life (Vie Privée) explores whether therapists have a better idea than most in this star-studded black comedy.

Jodie Foster plays Lilian Steiner, an American therapist living in Paris. When her long-term client, Paula (Virginie Eifira) doesn’t turn up for a session, Lilian knows that something is wrong. Paula has killed herself. At Paula’s Shemira (the Jewish custom of sitting with a body between death and burial) Lilian becomes convinced that Paula’s death may be due to foul play. Lilian goes back over her session recordings on an old minidisc recorder and starts to make Hitchcockian deductions about what really happened to Paula. Next, Lilian ropes in her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteil) to help. It becomes clear that this therapist has plenty of her own problems, including a distant relationship with her son Julien (Vincent Lacoste) who has just become a father. A bittersweet and funny tale ensues covering forms of grief and the flawed human heart’s need for connection.

A Private Life is witty and life-affirming, with a trademark melancholy outlining how familial bonds do not ensure understanding of other’s feelings. In particular, Zlotowski captures how a good marriage can break down because of all the things left unsaid. Foster has often imbued her performances with inner heart against a measured public face. But that could feel misaligned with frothier French cinema. So, Foster plays refreshingly against type, with palpable outward frustration and investigative skills that are haphazard at best.

Full of delightfully messy characters that are painfully un-self aware, the wheel of events in A Private Life effortlessly unfold. These include a cameo of Mathieu Almaric’s bottom, a sojourn into the mystic and a crackling energy. The film manages to be breezy while charting hidden depths.

The only real flaw is the lack of Efira. Beloved in France and beyond, Paula has little presence in the film, serving only to tease an entirely separate (and serious) story about what may have led to her death. Those wanting more should see Zlotowski’s previous film Other People’s Children where Efira has the starring role.

A Private Life is a wondrous feat: a film exploring a sensitive subjects wrapped up in a screwball comedy. It’s the cinematic equivalent of smiling through tears.