"A devoted young woman becomes ensnared in a web of sexuality and betrayal in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s consistently unpredictable and finely wrought character study. A vividly realistic psychosexual drama, the film’s sharp emotional honesty heralds a distinct new voice from a promising young director. 7 Years opens with Maite ironing clothes, but for whom, and why with such tension? Hattu soon reveals that Maite’s husband Vincent (a brooding Bruno Tod...
More
"A devoted young woman becomes ensnared in a web of sexuality and betrayal in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s consistently unpredictable and finely wrought character study. A vividly realistic psychosexual drama, the film’s sharp emotional honesty heralds a distinct new voice from a promising young director. 7 Years opens with Maite ironing clothes, but for whom, and why with such tension? Hattu soon reveals that Maite’s husband Vincent (a brooding Bruno Todeschini) is in prison for an unspecified crime, and that she has promised to wait for him and attend to his laundry (if not his conjugal needs) during his incarceration. On one of her weekly visits, Maite meets Jean, an oddly inquisitive and boldly flirtatious (as only the French can be) prison warden, and soon the two commence a joyless affair. Seemingly smitten with Maite, Jean, in a gesture of kindness to his lover, eases up on her husband behind bars; the two become pals and even engage in some homoerotic shower talk. The men’s particularly unusual Stockholm Syndrome relationship is further complicated when Maite begins to question Jean’s motives: Is he really in love with her, or is Vincent playing some sort of behind-bars game by goading his warden to make the moves on his gullible wife? The heart truly is deceitful above all things in this bizarre love triangle, brilliantly enacted by the leads as they tiptoe around, and pounce upon, one another’s desires. A subplot involving Maite’s maternal relationship with her neighbor’s wise-beyond-his-years young son lends genuine pathos and gentle humor to the otherwise hot-and-heavy proceedings. With striking naturalism, Hattu offers a compelling meditation on love, loyalty and the lengths people go to maintain at least the illusion of freedom."
Quoting Robert O’Shaughnessy form the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival site.
Less
