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Intimate Strangers
Paramount Classics


7.7

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Jérôme Tonnerre
DIRECTED BY:	Patrice Leconte
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 28, 2004 Video: December 28, 2004 Theatrical: July 30, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	104 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Original title "Confidences Trop Intimes"; Nominated, Golden Berlin Bear, 2004 Berlin International Film Festival

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...

100

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This is the kind of sophisticated and pleasurable movie you dream of seeing from France.

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.

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.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Leconte justifies his vaunted reputation by lending freshness and feeling to what could have been a gimmicky tragicomedy.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A strange almost-thriller.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Light and droll, but with an undercurrent of moody suspense.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

A film more psychological than passionate, more mental than emotional.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Props to translator Nigel Palmer for keeping the subtitles witty instead of blindly literal.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There's a thin line between the subtle and the dramatically inert, and Intimate Strangers pitches a tent on it.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This held me, but I was grateful when it released me.

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This has all the ingredients for a top-notch thriller except one - a thrill.

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.

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.

Village Voice David Ng

A bland chamber drama for those who like their French cinema tame, talky, and just a little titillating.

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.

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Intimate Strangers Paramount Classics

Intimate Strangers
Paramount Classics