Soul Mates

MY KING (B+) - Emmanuelle Bercot shreds scene after scene in this relationship horror story about a woman using time away rehabbing her knee to analyze her strained marriage.

Bercot re-teams with Maiwenn, who was the writer, director and co-star of "Polisse" (our favorite film of 2012), and who stays behind the camera for this harrowing tale of love and psychological war. Bercot is Toni, an attorney (though her metier is really an afterthought here) who while skiing with her husband and son has an accident that tears up her knee. During the rehab process, she bonds with mostly younger co-horts but also flashes back over the years to the very start of her relationship with the restaurateur Georgio (a perfectly manic Vincent Cassel).

They meet cute at a disco and start a torrid affair that eventually morphs into a turbulent relationship and then a dysfunctional marriage, with Toni frequently becoming emotionally unhinged. Her brother and sister-in-law --- Solal (Louis Garrel, "Jealousy," "A Burning Hot Summer") and Babeth (Isild Le Besco "The New Girlfriend") -- provide a Greek chorus, with Solal in particular a detractor of Georgio's from the start. And Georgio is a handful -- a sarcastic, unfaithful brute who knows how to push Toni's buttons.

Bercot is a revelation throughout. The old-fashioned word "hysterical" comes to mind, as she bounces from crisis to crisis, especially post-partum, when she finds Georgio lazing in bed with a young woman. Early on, Georgio takes a separate flat down the street for an "office" and to give each spouse some space, but he's not fooling anyone.

But rather than giving us a depiction of a crazy woman, Bercot and Maiwenn collaborate on a complex portrait of a woman struggling with her demons. Rehab is being done on more than just that broken joint; she is taking inventory and gradually healing from the emotional scars that have left her a wreck. In one flashback, a drunken outburst at a backyard gathering of friends reveals Toni at her nastiest and most vulnerable.

Toni and Georgio can be a handful to deal with over the course of a full two hours. But Cassel ("Read My Lips," "Mesrine") brings an impish appeal to his character. And Bercot (a Cannes award winner for this rolein 2015) is never short of riveting, whether she's putting a hand through glass while pregnant or wincing while on the weight machine. Maiwenn jumbles the chronology just enough to make it interesting but not too much to make it confusing.

If you've never fallen in love with a woman like Toni, I pity you and envy you.

BONUS TRACK
Maiwenn's debut short, "I'm an Actress" is featured as a bonus offering on the DVD. It's an unremarkable farce about an extreme stage mom (Maiwenn) pushing her tween daughter, Baba (Shanna Besson), too far and embarrassing her during an audition.