A PRIVATE LIFE  (in theatres)

Director Rebecca Zlotowski pairs with actors Jodi Foster and Daniel Auteuil in a slightly fuzzy, somewhat compelling film with superb, saucy acting and a vacillating premise, which eventually proves worthy of watching. Foster’s fluency in French blends with life in Paris as psychiatrist “Dr. Lilian Steiner”, investigating the death of one of her patient’s, “Paula”(Virginie Efira)  from a supposed suicide. No longer a youthful “Clarice Starling” (“Silence of the Lambs” 1991) but a mature sleuth, focusing on Foster’s rarefied intelligence as an actor and individual. No matter the role there is security and refinement in her characterization; she stuns in “A Private Life”, as does French co-star Daniel Auteuil (“The Closet”, “Cache”) as Lilian’s ex- husband “Gabriel”; they engage in a lighthearted entanglement questing for a “killer’’; chemically, karmically compatible as two doctors whose private lives have produced a son, “Julian” (Vincent Lacoste) a perpetual source of perturbation for Lilian.

“A Private Life’s” quandary lies in intimacy vs isolation, secrecy vs clarity, lying vs truthfulness, hearing vs listening, resulting in a formulaic, but satisfying conclusion!

THREE & ½ STARS

Peneflix