This is another one of the French movies, perhaps inspired by early Claude Chabrol movies like "Betty" or "Les Biches", that feature two women of different ages and backgrounds who become obsessed and enmeshed with each other. Other films in this vein include "See the Sea", "Swimming Pool", "Nathalie", and perhaps in some respects even the gory horror film "Inside". Of course, this particular film is more hallucinatory and confusing than most and told from the perspective of unreliable protagonist. And it's only available in French with no subtitles (which really doesn't help either in my case). Yael Abacassis is a recently divorced mother who hires a nanny (Clemence Poesy). Only in France would a prospective nanny chain smoke at a job interview, but the neurotic mother does too (amazingly the children don't die of lung cancer during the movie). The older woman becomes obsessed with the sex life of the younger woman, especially after she finds out that they seem to be dating the same man. She even follows her to a sex club one night (If you're busy stalking your babysitter, who's watching your children?). The movie only gets stranger, more hallucinatory, and more confusingly ambiguous from there.
It probably sounds like I didn't like this, but I kind of did (not that it couldn't have done with some English subs). Dense ambiguity is still better than being mercilessly beaten over the head with every plot point, which is too often the Hollywood style. I have never seen Abacissis before, but Poesy will be familiar to many for her role as "Fleur Delacourt" in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" where she made the hearts (and perhaps other parts of the anatomy) of male "Harry Potter" fans throb. I've seen a couple of her foreign films now and while she's much less famous, she's already clocked more nude scenes than Emma Watson probably ever will.
Not that I'd recommend THIS movie to "Harry Potter" fans, but if you're familiar with the neurotic female "doppleganger" theme in French films, you'll probably appreciate a film like this, even if it isn't in the class of Claude Chabrol or Francois ("See the Sea", "Swimming Pool") Ozon.
