Jacques Audiard's immediately-previous feature to The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005). Again Tonino Benacquista was his co-writer but this time it's an original conceit.
The setup has repressed, semi-deaf, overworked secretary Emmanuelle Devos hire recently-released Vincent Cassel as an office menial at a construction firm. He assists her rise with some larceny and heavying of some counterparties and she helps him out with her lip-reading skills when it's time for a heist. His parole officer Olivier Perrier gets his own track (something about his wife of 35 years) that does not seem to be particularly relevant or convergent. Her bestie/sister (?) Olivia Bonamy never passes up an opportunity to remind her of what she's been missing out on as a wallflower. She develops a taste for power and a willingness to use it that he learns to appreciate. It's good and sometimes fun. I'm not sure the concluding movement held together but by then it doesn't really matter.
Audiard opted for far more continuity and fluidity here. I enjoyed Cassel's performance the most of those I've seen from him. Devos seemed a bit old for the role (surely she would've cracked before hitting her mid-30s) but succeeds with her nervy, expressive face. The cinematography was good. The soundtrack is well-modulated, a precursor to Sound of Metal (2019).
Roger Ebert: three-and-a-half stars. The criminality is merely the way they "discover deep compatibility". Tonnes of hostility. A. O. Scott. A film of two halves. Peter Lennon interviewed Audiard at the time.
