L'ours en peluche

Alain Delon is the rich, respected professor/obstetrician (I had to look that up!) who appears to have everything (wife, daughter, professional success AND a mistress), but whose life begins to fall apart when he receives an anonymous phone call by a man who says he is "guilty" and threatens to kill him. Following the "clues" that the caller leaves for him, Delon tries to find out what he is accused of.

Actually, "Teddy Bear" is not as interesting as that description makes it sound. The mystery is revealed halfway through, and there isn't much suspense, either. In many scenes, the rich music score provides the only drama. Delon fans will be interested in seeing their idol in this more mature phase of his career, but Deray's clinical, dehydrated directorial style doesn't do much to get us involved. And of course, this being a French movie, it's talky (though Delon remains relatively silent and lets the others do most of the talking).

On the other hand, this being a French movie, it dares to end in an amoral, un-Hollywood-ish way. I didn't see the ending coming, and you probably won't, either. It's good enough to push the rating of this movie from ** to **1/2 out of 4.