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Read My Lips (2002)
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:24
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.1/10
Consensus: A clever and offbeat character study about two people discovering each other.
Theatrical Release:Jul 5, 2002 Limited
Box Office: $1,177,985
Synopsis: In its opening shot, READ MY LIPS shows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) inserting her hearing aids and getting ready for work. But it's evident that her hearing problem does not hold her back as she... In its opening shot, READ MY LIPS shows Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) inserting her hearing aids and getting ready for work. But it's evident that her hearing problem does not hold her back as she throws herself into answering the constantly ringing phones at her job as an unappreciated secretary for an architecture firm. Swamped with work, Carla asks her boss to hire an assistant for her, Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con who is trying to get his life back on track. To everyone else--her sexist coworkers and her sexy friend Annie--Carla is a dog with a disability. But to Paul, who is Carla's subordinate, she's a femme fatale. In Paul's life--to his parole officer and the two-bit thugs to whom he still owes money--he is an untrustworthy outcast and a bum. But to Carla, he is a secret weapon with skills (lock-picking, physical intimidation) that she needs. Likewise, Carla becomes Paul's secret weapon as her ability to read lips opens up a new world of possibilities to his plotting, criminal ways. READ MY LIPS is a story of romance through and through, and, in its second half, it is a fast-moving and constantly flip-flopping heist drama. Once Carla and Paul really start working together, the tension between them only helps them along. Never trusting each other, never predictable in their actions, these characters imbue Jacques Audiard's masterful film with a breathtaking suspense that is simultaneously alluring and repellent. [More]
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier, Olivia Bonamy
Director: Jacques Audiard
Director: Jacques Audiard
Screenwriter: Jacques Audiard, Tonino Benacquista
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
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Reviews for Read My Lips
Audiard has created one of those rare, commercially released movies that trades in actual, honest-to-god surprise.
Having changed into action gear, the picture never looks back, leaving two people who seemed wonderfully unique to do things that are cinematically trite.
It's erotic, suspenseful and built around two surprising characters. Even better, it doesn't feel like every other thriller we've ever seen.
Read My Lips is not a heist film, a thriller, a twisted romance, a film noir or a character study, but a unique concoction that bends all these genres to its vision.
There's real visual charge to the filmmaking, and a strong erotic spark to the most crucial lip-reading sequence.
Overall, it's the best French thriller since With a Friend Like Harry two years ago.
Read My Lips is not about deafness, lip-reading, crime or sex, but about that discovery; the plot simply provides the rails on which it rides.
The powerful success of Read My Lips with such provocative material shows why, after only three films, director/co-writer Jacques Audiard, though little known in this country, belongs in the very top rank of French filmmakers.
The pleasure of Read My Lips is like seeing a series of perfect black pearls clicking together to form a string. We're drawn in by the dark luster.
The attraction between these two marginal characters is complex from the start -- and, refreshingly, stays that way.
Read My Lips is to be viewed and treasured for its extraordinary intelligence and originality as well as its lyrical variations on the game of love.
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| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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|---|---|
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
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