Berri plays both the bedroom scenes and the beach scenes with the same tender touch, so that the contentment and loneliness, the pleasure and pain, both hit us at the same rate.
Comment
07/25/03
The Housekeeper (2003)
76
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:59
Fresh:45
Rotten:14
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Nuanced performances and an understated tone make The Housekeeper transcend its familiar premise.
Theatrical Release:Jul 11, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $245,540
Synopsis: Claude Berri (JEAN DE FLORETTE, LUCIE AUBRAC) delivers yet another laudable entry on love and loneliness in UNE FEMME DE MENAGE. The story, written with efficiency and compassion, follows Jacques... [More]
Starring: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emilie Dequenne, Brigitte Catillon, Jacques Frantz
Director: Claude Berri
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Reviews for The Housekeeper
Claude Berri brings a light touch and a knowing hand to the wishful thinking of the familiar May-December male fantasy.
08/01/03
Berri makes very personal works about men who learn something about themselves rather late in life -- something important -- and The Housekeeper continues to analyze this very worthy theme.
10/17/03
Transforms a stock male-fantasy situation into something tender and believable...
09/08/03
With their reverse-chemistry, [Bacri and Dequenne are] so good together -- hot and hilarious simultaneously -- that you'd think they'd been a team for ages.
11/07/03
The Housekeeper provides a nuanced and inventive anatomy of urban loneliness and the surprising way out that can arrive unannounced, just when we least expect it.
07/10/03
A modest, at times downright tiny, film. Yet its melancholy sense of humor touched me in unexpected ways.
08/20/03
There isn't much to The Housekeeper, really, but it plumbs depths of male unease that louder and less wise movies strain to reach.
07/25/03
Top CriticBasic ingredients are in under-supply: characterization and believability.
07/10/03
Inexplicably large chunks of the movie are dedicated to Jacques smoking cigarettes, reading books, listening to jazz and looking pensive. What are we supposed to do with that?
10/16/03
The story doesn't provide enough depth or entertainment to warrant a trip to the art house, wait until you can see it in the comfort of your own messy apartment.
08/08/03
A lovely film about sadness and mess, both inside and out, and how we are able to make ourselves feel better – temporarily
11/16/03
The Housekeeper is wise and subtle in the way it presents its older man. A less interesting movie would make him lustful and self-deceiving, a man who believes his is the secret of eternal youth and virility.
08/01/03
Top CriticIts love story engages both the heart and the head.
07/31/03
Top CriticThe stars hold your interest.
07/09/03
It may be an old story, but Berri draws fresh poignancy from this December-May romance by identifying so empathetically with Jacques.
07/11/03
An acutely observed (and felt) essay on loneliness.
08/28/03
Top CriticLike Chabrol reconfigured into a mildly droll midlife-crisis tease.
08/15/03
Top CriticWhenever a new character is introduced, the movie heads off in a new direction, and while each direction is a surprise, each ends up being an important part of this portrait of a confused, ultimately curious man.
08/08/03
Tasty French souffle.
07/10/03
Top CriticWhat’s Hot On RT
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