L'économie du couple

Marie and Boris were in love once and have two daughters and a lovely house that Boris has done up mostly by himself. Somewhere along that journey the love has been reversed and now Marie can not abide the sight of her husband. They seem to have arrangements to cohabit until finances have been sorted but things are steadily falling apart.

The film can be a hard watch as anyone going through a relationship meltdown or who has gone through one will know. The ways they chose to humiliate each other seem to know no bounds. Then we have the guilt trips and the fumbling make ups.

It has the feel of a very well observed and constructed film. All the actors are great especially the children. What it does get for its unrelenting realism is a bleak and almost depressing film. This is as far from a 'feel good' film as you can possibly get – think 'Kramer Vs Kramer' only with better wine. As an artistic endeavour though it does have to be applauded for its achievements – but I had to watch something more cheery afterwards so do be warned.