The slightly off-kilter mystery “A Private Life” leans hard into French-style dry humor and existential unease, which gives it its certain je ne sais quoi. Director Rebecca Zlotowski’s project certainly moves slowly, but with the intent of giving the film space to burrow into character rather than rush toward tidy answers. Anchored by another strong lead performance from Jodie Foster, the film ultimately reveals itself to be less a conventional whodunit than an absorbing study of self-deception and the emotional blind spots that haunt our everyday lives.
Foster plays Lilian Steiner, an American psychoanalyst who has built a life and practice in Paris. When she learns that her patient Paula (Virginie Efira) has apparently died by suicide from a prescription overdose, Lilian is shaken by doubt as well as grief. The arrival of Paula’s enraged widower Simon (Mathieu Amalric), her withdrawn daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), and the unsettling discovery that files have been stolen from Lilian’s office suggest that Paula’s death may not be as straightforward as it appears.
With the help of her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), Lilian embarks on a bit of amateur sleuthing. Their investigation raises more questions than answers, particularly after a strange session with a hypnotherapist leads Lilian to wonder whether her bond with Paula may stretch beyond this lifetime. From there, the film flirts with zaniness without tipping over, riding a delicate tonal line between intrigue, melancholy, and darkly comic self-awareness. It’s an interesting film to say the least.
The mystery itself gradually becomes secondary. The film uses its noir framework as a vehicle to explore Lilian’s own private life. She explores her fuzzy professional boundaries, her self-doubt as a therapist, and the ways she may be hiding from uncomfortable truths about herself. The deeper she digs into Paula’s death, the more her own secrets and biases come into focus. The real puzzle isn’t who committed a crime, but how Lilian has constructed and ultimately misunderstood her own identity.
Smartly executed and packed with savvy wit, “A Private Life” is a great example of modern noir that values psychological depth over straightforward plot devices. It’s a thoughtful, quietly mischievous character study that suggests the hardest truths to uncover are often the ones we keep from ourselves.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 