How much do we really share of ourselves with other people? Even in conversation with close friends and those from whom we’re seeking honest advice, we still filter out certain details that might not seem relevant or flattering, and also are subject to our biases, which frame the way we shape events and paint situations. Confiding in a therapist is no different, and when a private, safe session room is no longer the extent of a relationship, there can be major questions and surprises that come along as a result, as discovered in A Private Life.
Lilian (Jodie Foster) works as a psychoanalyst in Paris, and she’s having trouble reaching one of her patients, Paula (Virginie Efira). When she learns from Paula’s daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami) that Paula has died, Lilian goes to the funeral, only to be eviscerated and thrown out by her husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric). Perplexed at the news of her apparent suicide, Lilian begins to receive anonymous calls and finds her home burglarized. Suspecting that either Valérie or Simon is responsible for Paula’s death, Lilian enlists the help of her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) to figure out what she may have missed and what she still doesn’t know.
Filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski returns to the Toronto International Film Festival with a very different film from the last one she premiered here, Other People’s Children, with star Efira demoted to a posthumous role. It’s still a drama about a complicated family, but it’s much more of a thriller which is also laced with comedy. Lilian seems to like what she does but also sees the absurdity in what some of her patients say to her, and the manner in which she begins to look for clues has a heightened air to it. She’s a serious character, but this feels sometimes more like a crime caper than a straightforward dramatic thriller, which makes it even more enjoyable to watch.
What’s interesting about the construction of this film, which is written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest, and Gaëlle Macé, is that it offers up only select information for audiences to know, unraveling slowly as the scope of this mystery becomes gradually clearer, then hazier, then eventually clear again. The aim isn’t as much to find the culprit and prove their guilt but to understand Lilian’s role in it. As she listens back to recordings of sessions, she’s startled by what she hears, which suggests that she’s only just started paying attention and may not have been doing her job as she had hoped for so long. Not being legally complicit in her patient’s death can’t exonerate her conscience.
Foster, coming off an Emmy win for True Detective: Night Country, has an impeccable French accent that all Americans should strive for, and if not for the few curse words uttered in English when she’s frustrated and the fact that Foster is a world-famous two-time Oscar winner, audiences might be fully unaware that she wasn’t a native. It’s a performance that, as usual, incorporates wit and strength, gentler than but just as closed-off as some of her previous roles. The ensemble is full of French talent, and it’s a particular treat to see Auteil in a playful role as a man who sees such joyous potential in being reunited during this investigation with a woman he used to love.
A Private Life has echoes of classic French thrillers like Tell No One in the way that it uses the camera to build suspense, but this is a far more innocuous slow burn that stays away from jump scares and chilling conspiracies. Its title is ambiguous since it could refer to what Paula never shared with Lilian but also speaks to how Lilian lives, talking to people all day long but never really connecting with anyone. This film provides a chance to get to know Lilian just as much as the case she’s looking into, and it’s a welcome one, a light, engaging, stylized thriller with a fantastic performance from Foster at its center.
Movie Rating: 8/10
