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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Intimate Strangers

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Foreign
Written by: Jérôme Tonnerre
Directed by: Patrice Leconte
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 30, 2004
DVD: December 28, 2004
Running Time: 104 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): French (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: R for sexual dialogue
Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, Michel Duchaussoy, Anne Brochet, Gilbert Melki, Laurent Gamelon, Hélène Surgère, and Urbain Cancelier
In this provocative love story masked in the guise of a suspense thriller, a beautiful Parisian woman opens the wrong door and steps into a dizzying psychological mystery that will forever change two lives. (Paramount Classics)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Girl on the Bridge Man on the Train My Best Friend The Widow of Saint-Pierre
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
At age 37, she's (Bonnaire) developed into a consummate film actress and a unique star whose enigmatic persona has never had a more exhilarating showcase.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
It proposes that you can make an extraordinarily satisfying comedy without writing a joke. Subtly played and elegantly directed, this is an Adults Only movie in the best sense of the term.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Luchini gives one of the best performances of the year, in one of the best movies of the year.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Patrice Leconte has long ago mastered a Gallic specialty: the knack of making impeccably polished, graceful films with an unpretentious ease while allowing them to emerge seeming fresh and spontaneous. Leconte's latest film to reach the U.S. reveals him to be at his slyest best.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
This modest French-language film follows the time-honored cinematic tradition of plot as spearheaded by a simple twist of fate.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Such a triumph of simplicity, subtlety and tact--and of the eroticism in words, looks and glances--that the actors ravish us with sheer talent and intelligence.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
We find we cannot take anything for face value in this story, that the motives of this woman and her husband are so deeply masked that even at the end of the film we are still uncertain about exactly what to believe, and why.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This is the kind of sophisticated and pleasurable movie you dream of seeing from France.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The film insightfully probes into the things that are said and the intense feelings that are merely implied, buzzing at a low level just beneath the surface.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Establishes its mood of playful erotic suspense in the first 10 minutes and sustains its cat-and-mouse game between therapist and patient through variations that are by turns amusing, titillating and mildly scary.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Leconte justifies his vaunted reputation by lending freshness and feeling to what could have been a gimmicky tragicomedy.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Light and droll, but with an undercurrent of moody suspense.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Marta Barber
A film more psychological than passionate, more mental than emotional.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
Props to translator Nigel Palmer for keeping the subtitles witty instead of blindly literal.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It's at once too restrained and too perversely funny to have emanated from the play-it-big-but-play-it-safe sensibilities of Hollywood, U.S.A.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Leconte, as always, means to explore the gray areas between sexual espionage and love, and there remains something powerful about the fantasy of being listened to, without judgment.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
Consistently entertaining exploration of how much -- or how little -- is required to overcome obstacles to self-actualization should be welcome wherever auds crave a good story told with nuance and flair.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
The result is a handsome, intelligent film that feels as restrained as its protagonist -- a comic premise without many laughs, a thriller without many thrills.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren
If you like movies in which fashionably dressed people spend a lot of time smoking and talking cryptically about sex in dark, overfurnished Paris apartments, you should put down your café au lait and run out to see this film right now. If not, you probably just don't like French movies.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
No "Girl on the Bridge," but this comic thriller does generate a fair amount of erotic tension and sly commentary on psychoanalysis.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
There's a thin line between the subtle and the dramatically inert, and Intimate Strangers pitches a tent on it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This held me, but I was grateful when it released me.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
All that menace is simply decorative, and it's disappointing that Laconte never properly addresses the intriguing sexual undertones (like voyeurism, exhibitionism and sexual obsession) he uses to darken the film's palette.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
This has all the ingredients for a top-notch thriller except one - a thrill.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
To borrow a phrase from Pauline Kael, Intimate Strangers suggests bits of Alfred Hitchcock and bits of Woody Allen. But the wrong bits.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film does get claustrophobic. It never quite achieves the balance between a two-character study and a larger world, as did "The Man on the Train." The film also could do with a bit more humor, most of which is supplied by the sagacious shrink.
Read Full Review >Village Voice David Ng
A bland chamber drama for those who like their French cinema tame, talky, and just a little titillating.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Katy M. gave it a10:
Just wonderful. Fabrice Luchini should get best actor award.
Vince H. gave it a 6:
Patrice Leconte has been making his distinct brand of sensitive and low-key dramas/comedies for the past 15 or so years. Unfortunately only Roger Ebert seems to be the only major critic who is a big fan, and rags like The Village Voice & Chicago Reader seem to find these "bland, talky chamber films", I for the most part enjoy them and revel in the excellent acting (no matter which way you slice it, Leconte is an excellent director of actors) and the beautiful photography. Yes this is minor Leconte (his 2002 masterpiece Man on the Train remains his best film), but I would still recommend this to any fans of Claude Chabrol or Andre Techine, or French films in general. Hopefully us Leconte fans will get a chance to see his still unreleased-in-America musical/documentary Dogora.
chief276 gave it a 3:
Far-fetched premise developed with calculation rather than imagination. Actors make it work, though.
Chad S. gave it an 8:
When "Intimate Strangers" is over, and there is neither a payoff for the Hitchcockian or film noir elements, you realize that the film itself was a red herring. Anna's cigarettes reflect France's laxer guidelines for indoor smoking since the film noir premise is deliberately tossed away. Alongside the film noir plot that never materializes, there's the "Rear Window" references that Leconte obliquely sidesteps. At a crucial moment, meant to mirror Grace Kelly's crossing over into Jimmy Stewart's public mis-en-scene, you'll think your projectionist made a mistake with the reel. But how can there be a climax if "Intimate Strangers" isn't a thriller? As for Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire), her marital situation bears more than a passing resemblance to Bess' in "Breaking the Waves", which leads me to conclude, that she is more nutcase than femme fatale. "Intimate Strangers" is cerebral, silly, and distinctly French.
Yasmine G. gave it a 9:
Fabulous, sexy and intellectual.
