Special Treatment (2011)
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 159
My Rating
Movie Info
In this darkly erotic drama from cult filmmaker Jeanne Labrune, Isabelle Huppert stars as a high-class prostitute named Alice who serves up sexual fantasies for her clientele, from schoolgirl innocence to S&M. Fed up with the seamy underbelly of French masculinity, Alice crosses paths with Xavier, a neurotic psychoanalyst facing a marriage crisis. The two quickly realize their professions share a thing or two in common as they navigate the overlapping worlds of psychotherapy and sex therapy. --
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Cast
-
Isabelle Huppert
Alice Bergerac -
Bouli Lanners
Xavier Demestre -
Richard Debuisne
Pierre Cassagne -
Sabila Moussadek
Juliette -
Valerie Dreville
Hélène Demestre, Hélè... -
Mathieu Carriere
Robert Masse -
Didier Bezace
Happy and Sad Man -
Frederic Longbois
Transvestite -
Christophe Odent
Pipe Collector -
Jean-François Wolff
Pedophile Customer -
Gilles Cohen
Elegant Sportsman -
Frederic Pierrot
François Briand, Franç...
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All Critics (18) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (10) | DVD (3)
Though the parallels drawn between therapy and prostitution grow tiresome, the duo's interaction is peppered with inspired comedic moments.
Top CriticAt the end, there is no great revelation, but Huppert has succeeded once again in making us wonder what's going on in there.
Complex, compassionate and endlessly illuminating...
It isn't a lightweight erotic romp at all, but a complicated and delicate two-person odyssey that's much richer and subtler than that.
As clichés trot through their sessions - it's like "In Treatment" as bedroom farce - we check out. Huppert, though, is as fearless as ever.
To put it plainly, Ms. Huppert, now 58, is too old for the part. The spectacle of Ms. Huppert, the epitome of adult self-possession, impersonating a schoolgirl is grotesquely amusing.
Isabelle Huppert has a sly technique and endlessly fascinating face, but this initially intriguing drama abandons darker overtones for rather wan interpersonal revelations.
A dramatically inert and poorly acted French film.
This solemn, unsexy France/Belgium/Luxembourg co-production...takes mean swipes at both psychotherapy and male sexuality, but fortunately seems most determined to give star Isabelle Huppert another well-deserved showcase for her versatility.
Huppert's performance is strong and Labrune's previous films show she's not without talent. You wish she hadn't so stubbornly adhered to one tiresome idea.
A curious cross of sex therapy and psychotherapy where nobody spends much time in bed or on the couch.
Huppert is always a pleasure on screen, and her performance as a competent, consummate professional is Special Treatment's main draw.
Despite its flaws, Jeanne Labrune's Special Treatment is surprisingly atmospheric at times.
The tag line for the advertising campaign is bold: 'A film that dares to tell the truth about women.' I, unfortunately, missed whatever truth that was.
The cast manage to make the film engaging to some extent, although it becomes less and less interesting
Huppert is always a welcome presence on screen and while strong performances give the film weight, they cannot rescue the journey as the narrative dips in and out of credibility
Audience Reviews for Special Treatment
a self-claimed 43 year-old high-class prostitute who is an expert in role-playing sex-games meets a jaded therapist who encounters a series of depressions in his life. then the man books a series of services from this woman, but he cannot decide what he really wants, what position, what kind of scenario within their sexual dallidances, or even whether he really wants to get laid or not! bascially half of the movie is spent on how the therapist doesn't wish to get laid while the woman considers to get herself another kind of profession. in a brief, they both are tired of putting themselves away to comply the needs of others. and there's no romance, no affair but several ordinary conversations about their impasse of life. does that suggest that people of extraordinary professions are actually quite ordinary by private?
audience follows those trivial daily details of their lives, then all of a sudden, the movie ends just like that. so the man gets his wife back, and the woman finds a job as an art-collector. the camera lingers over her face while she takes a sip of her coffee (so "interesting"?!) this movie is designed to fail your expectation, pre-programmed to be anti-climaxical! the only amusing eposide is the part isabelle huppert dresses as a 14-year-old school girl to please her client who has troubles with erection. that episode does have a dry sense of humor. the rest of movie is quite a bore!
i do wanna say, even this movie is quite a piece of tedium, (you would definitely not be entertained for it!), at least, it is honest and real. totally the opposite to the stories of chuck palahniuk, whose characters have no ounce of realism in them. "special treatment" is glued heavily to the real conditions of human frailty without dramatization or exaggerations by giving it some excessively oddball story-developments. that's one thing i must say no matter how un-entertained i have been!
who says i want realism?! i want magic! (blanchet from streetcar named desire)
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Foreign Titles
- Sans queue ni tête (DE)
- Sans queue ni tete (UK)
This is more like a small slice of her daily life than any big story or plot happening. It just ambles along. There's some of her work with clients (I found the costumes more interesting than anything going on here. Isabelle is still beautiful and compelling onscreen), and the implication that her friend is something more, but it never really goes there either. The main story is that she is tired of hooking and wants to quit. Whether she does or not is up in the air, but I got the impression she did. It's not horrible, but there is really not much of anything going on in this movie. A bit disappointing.
Strictly for fans of Isabelle!