L'Amant Double/Double Lover

Stars: Marine Vacth, Jeremie Renier, Jacqueline Bisset, Myriam Boyer, Fanny Sage, Dominique Reymond

Director: Francois Ozon

Too much sex and not enough plot hampers this Gallic thriller that starts intriguingly, but gets increasingly silly as it careers towards an ending that leaves us with more questions than answers.

The unspellable Vacth, a pencil-thin and limpid-eyed brunette, spends much of the film without her clothes on as Chloe, a disturbed and jobless 25-year-old suffering from mysterious stomach pains that may by psychosomatic. She consults a psychiatrist, Paul Mayer (Renier).

He falls in love with her, and they move in together, with her evil-looking cat. She seems distracted when they make love and even more so when she sees him with another woman. But the man turns out to be the twin brother Paul denies he has.

Visiting the brother, also a psychiatrist, Chloe is soon seduced by him, finding him a much more violent lover than his twin. Then she gets pregnant. But by whom?

There's much talk thereafter of cannibal twins (everyone's a little nuts here) as Chloe struggles to break clear of the dodgy twin, although how much of all this is in her own tormented mind is anyone's guess.

Very visceral, with some look-away scenes, the film has little suspense and is finally, despite good performances - some in dual roles - just too preposterous.

David Quinlan

France 2017. UK Distributor: Curzon/Artificial Eye. Colour by Transpalux.
106 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 3, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 27 May 2018