Where to watch: ‘Anaïs in Love’ is now playing at Laemmle Theaters.
For a French romantic comedy about a thirty-something woman falling in and out of love in the City of Light, Anaïs in Love isn’t as très chic as I expected. Set in Paris, the surrounding countryside, and a small, picturesque seaside town, what the film has in terms of baked-in natural aesthetic falls short when it comes to the story itself; specifically our protagonist’s motivation for disrupting her life and those around her. If you’re looking for a film that will transport you to a breezy, sun-soaked European destination, then Anaïs in Love will certainly satisfy that desire. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer much else.
Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) leads a very dysfunctional life. She can’t afford her rent, she is too claustrophobic to take an elevator/enclosed transportation (leading her to bike and run everywhere), her mother is terminally ill, she is struggling to complete her school thesis, her unstable relationship with her boyfriend is on life support… and she just found out that she is 7 weeks pregnant despite being vocal about never wanting children.
With the entire world seemingly against her, Anaïs takes everything in stride. She is, for better or for worse, a free spirit with an “on to the next” attitude that doesn’t allow her to sit in her grief for long. She finds distraction in her new quasi-relationship with older gentleman Daniel (Denis Podalydès) who she meets at a mutual friend’s party. He is a book publisher, and their shared passion for literature is something they quickly bond over. However, Daniel is already in a committed relationship with his partner Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a well-respected author. Despite knowing this, Anaïs continues her affair with Daniel until she catches a glimpse of the blonde beauty and decides that it is Emilie who she wants after all.
Much like the character of Anaïs, the film is, at times, a bit messy. Movement is a central theme here, from Anaïs’ constant running in scenes to emotionally skirting away from reality. However exhausting it might be to watch, it portrays Anaïs’ emotional state quite well: this is a girl who doesn’t know what she wants. I wish we were given more insight as to why Anaïs is as she’s portrayed to be. Without any context, it feels as if “quirky” was the only personality trait she was given.
Anaïs’s claustrophobic trait is an interesting one, especially when speaking metaphorically. The confines of any sort of boundary–whether it be physical walls or a metaphorical code of ethics–causes Anaïs to react like a wild dog in a cage. She pushes back much harder than she should and her actions have consequences that we, unfortunately, never see played out in the film. She cheats on her boyfriend and makes an important decision about her pregnancy, yet we never see how he deals with the news. Was he ever told? We don’t know.
Despite the character development shortcomings, director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love is a charming, albeit manic, depiction of a complicated young woman at a crossroads in her life.
1h 38m. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures.
