The Nature of Love (3/10)

by Tony Medley

112 Minutes.

NR.

This is apparently intended to be a romcom, but director/scriptwriter Monia Chokri has a much different definition of both comedy and romance than I. Sophia (Magalie Lépine-londeau) in an apparently happy 10-year marriage to Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume) when she meets a sexy contractor, Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) and falls for him. Chokri tries to say she falls in love, but it looks more like falling in sex.

With no seeming guilt, she pursues a relationship with him. Chokri apparently has no empathy with the cuckolded Xavier, who is almost immediately discarded from the story. There is no mention of how he reacts to his wife running of with another man. Chokri’s ignoring this part of the story shows a low appreciation of the effects of betrayal and unfaithfulness.

The film satisfies all the woke requirements of today’s moviemaking. Near the end it throws in a gay character and a black character, neither of whom has any relationship to the story. They are just there to check off those two boxes.

Another minus, from my POV, is the fact that the two main characters smoke. Back in the day all the cigarette companies paid to have characters in movies smoke, encouraging the impressionable audiences to smoke, leading to millions of addictions and deaths from nicotine. Hollywood cut back on this for a while but now smoking is beginning to reappear in films. I can only guess that there must have been some financial considerations to have the characters both light up during the film. As far as I’m concerned that’s unacceptable and deplorable.

If this is supposed to be about “love,” that’s not what came across to me. Every time they slobbered over each other and made goo-goo eyes, I thought about how weak and selfish the two were. I squirmed when they were making passionate love, thinking about poor Xavier. But here’s how Chokri rationalizes her bland treatment of unfaithfulness and adultery:

At first, she tells herself it’s just a one-night stand. She’d had a few drinks, he’s sexy enough, it won’t mean anything. Half the people in relationships I know have had at least one fling. To quote Sophia: “I don’t know any faithful couples.” It happens all the time, but we never talk about it. The subject is taboo. The word “faithfulness” is still a Judeo-Christian norm. A heavy burden. I think we should talk about “loyalty” instead. My mother said that, for her, cheating was not about having sex with someone else. It was when you start to feel close to the person in question. I thought this was a fair assessment... But after a certain age, sex and intimacy are intrinsically tied.

 So much for morality. As to “comedy,” I didn’t see anything in the film that was remotely humorous. So, it’s not romantic and it’s not funny. What’s the point? In French.