I have no idea how Love Crime ended up in my queue-probably because Kristin Scott Thomas is currently doing an amazing job as an international multilingual middle aged actress. While I enjoyed the execution and metaphoric quality of Love Crime, it is one of those movies that suffers from movie logic-none of the events would happen and work on a literal level in the real world. It is so Rube Goldbergian, and if you can accept when things get a wee bit much, then you will enjoy the movie. Love Crime is set in Paris. The characters mostly speak French and occasionally English. Love Crime is about two women who work for an American international company. It was remade by Brian DePalma in English, but set in Germany, and I will have a separate review for that movie, Passion.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

What makes Love Crime work is the issue of what is the true identity of the younger woman, Isabelle, and her relationships with her colleagues, particularly Scott Thomas, who plays Christine, Isabelle’s boss. Scott Thomas is an older woman-both seductive and mothering in her work relationship with her younger insubordinate. Christine will love you until you move even a scintilla from her direction or shadow then punishment time. Love Crime never fully answers who Isabelle is and maybe she never knows. Isabelle reacts well, but not independently. Is she the drab, talented and competent executive who can be unknowingly manipulated? Or is she a younger Christine, except with the potential to even be more ruthless and sexy? Or is that person an act as well- clothes that she was trying on until she can revert back to her earlier self? I think many things work in Love Crime: the cast; the plot element of viewing movies; the implication that even before Isabelle worked with Christine, her life has something critically and innately wrong as shown by her compulsion to run and her emotional breakdown; the unspoken motives of Daniel; the casual opulence of the daily life of women in upper middle and upper class; the presence of sexuality–adult but not over the top. It had a Single White Female-Corporate French Sexy edition quality that I enjoyed. I didn’t buy anyone getting THAT worked up over Philippe, especially Isabelle or the idea that the cops would get different eyewitness testimony where Isabelle is a shrew and then the sweetest girl ever and not think something was up. I know that it adds to the theme of what is Isabelle’s real identity, but I do think cops would at least mention the inconsistencies in character. I would not have minded if there was more exploration of Isabelle’s relationship with her sister-maybe I missed something crucial. Even if Isabelle is exonerated, I’m surprised that any major corporation would keep her. Sure she was talented, but not indispensable. Love Crime suggests something deeply sad about female achievement-there can only be one, and even then it is manipulated and subordinate to men, who will keep their hands clean. I would only recommend Love Crime if you like elaborate mysteries and French films.