When Blanche (Virginie Efira) and Gregoire (Melvil Poupaud) serendipitously meet at a summer season home social gathering, they fall into the form of seemingly excellent love that you just’d by no means imagine was potential until you had skilled it your self. She’s a French literature instructor who has grown uninterested in ready for her soulmate to reach, and he’s the tall, good-looking stranger who simply so occurs to be prepared to debate Camus and Molière for hours on finish. They snicker on the similar jokes, have earth-shattering intercourse, and create the form of shared language that varieties when a pair shares their most intimate experiences. It isn’t lengthy earlier than a summer season of affection results in an engagement ring and a child on the best way.
The class with which “Simply the Two of Us” director Valérie Donzelli shoots their whirlwind romance solely makes it extra jarring when, 20 minutes into the movie, we see Blanche in a lawyer’s workplace recalling the way it all went unsuitable. The movie, co-written by Donzelli and Audrey Diwan and tailored from Eric Reinhardt’s novel “L’Amour et les Forêts,” proceeds to observe Blanche as she explains how her fairy story become a nightmare.
Quickly after the marriage and the delivery of their first baby, Gregoire insists on shifting the brand new household out of the town. His acknowledged reasoning is shopping for an even bigger home that can permit them to lift kids, however the brand new location conveniently retains Blanche hours away from all of her family and friends. He then begins to bristle at her prolonged commute to work every day, and means that she abandon her job in order that she will spend extra time with him within the evenings. All of his requests are delivered with suave politeness, however they step by step isolate his spouse from any help system that doesn’t contain him. Each time Blanche raises sensible objections to those selections, she unleashes a torrent of paranoia and insecurity from her husband. Gregoire spirals uncontrolled and expresses manufactured concern that he’s not adequate for her, and she or he all the time acquiesces to be able to calm him down.
The flip of occasions needs to be very acquainted to anybody who has skilled, or watched others expertise, an abusive relationship. And whereas the plot unfolds with a tragic predictability, Donzelli nails the delicate nuances that make these marriages so onerous to flee. Gregoire steadily gives tearful apologies for his conduct or modifications the topic with romantic gestures, one in every of which prompts the couple to conceive a second baby. In a single chilling scene, he confronts Blanche in misery after listening to a radio report about spousal abuse that prompted him to acknowledge his personal conduct. However fairly than apologize, he turns the blame again on her for enabling his abuse and never “loving” him sufficient to intervene and cease him. And so the cycle begins once more.
It isn’t lengthy earlier than Gregoire has successfully trapped Blanche by controlling all of her cash, free time, and social circle. Because the strings tighten round her, the movie turns into an exploration of what marriage means to completely different folks. Blanche is an idealist who, regardless of being effectively conscious that her husband is abusing her, takes her vows of “good instances and unhealthy” too severely to contemplate leaving. Gregoire additionally sees this, and takes benefit of her lofty views of the establishment by seeing how far he can push her boundaries. To him, marriage is an limitless free cross to do no matter you need to one other human being who has already pledged their loyalty to you. His manipulative video games muddy the emotional waters a lot that she doesn’t start to consider life outdoors Gregoire till her bodily security is endangered. Solely then, with the assistance of her equivalent twin sister — the movie’s title is a play on each the isolating nature of abusive marriages and the distinctive sibling bond that twins share — she begins to concoct an escape plan.
“Simply the Two of Us” is a uncommon thriller whose setup is extra compelling than its climax. Lots of the most theoretically dramatic scenes are pedestrian in execution, and the movie’s third act can’t match the primary two as soon as everybody has revealed their true colours. However the movie’s skill to hint a hellish case of home abuse again to its blissful origins makes it effectively price watching. The 2 leads radiate a pure chemistry, and Donzelli’s confidently lengthy takes flip each delicate look and gesture into one other thread in Blanche and Gregoire’s complicated tapestry. Even in its most perverse moments, “Simply the Two of Us” unfolds like a collection of nostalgic photographs that an aged couple would possibly look again fondly on from early of their marriage. It’s a reminder that, irrespective of how picturesque a relationship may appear, you by no means actually know when an abuser is hiding in plain sight.
Grade: B-
A Music Field Movies launch, “Simply the Two of Us” opens in choose theaters in New York Metropolis and Los Angeles on Friday, June 14.