Petite Coupures

Slow moving comedy drama from Pascal Bonitzer which follows Communist journalist Bruno (the perennially jaded looking Daniel Auteuil) who is asked by his influential uncle to bring a letter to an old friend. Bruno's own personal life is a bit of a shambles. He's unhappily married to Gaelle (Emmanuelle Devos) and has a girlfriend Nathalie (Ludivine Sagnier), young enough to be his daughter on the go as well, but he doesn't seem to like her very much. Although he's reluctant to deliver the letter, Bruno agrees and, in some zoned out existentialist crisis, gets lost on his way, encountering the alluring Beatrice (Kristin Scott Thomas) in her rural hideaway.

A real oddity, Petites Coupures is one of those films where logic has been confined to the ha'penny place with things happening for no apparent reason. Writer-director Bonitzer doesn't seem to have exercised an awful lot of editorial control over the proceedings with the film having a haphazard, almost thrown-together feel about it.

The best thing about the movie is Scott Thomas. Although the English actress often gives the impression of frostiness, she's in delicate form here, handling the language beautifully and injects a flurry of wicked passion into her character. Auteuil, on the otherhand, looks so surly and burlesque that it is too much of a leap of faith to believe that foxy chicks like Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier believe he's the best deal that manhood has to offer.