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mes lèvres Read My Lips Directed By: Jacques
Audiard Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| Young secretary Carla is a long-time employee of a property development company. Loyal and hardworking, first to arrive and last to leave, Carla is beginning to chafe at the limitations of her career and is looking to move up. But as a 35-five-year-old woman with a hearing deficiency, she is not sure how to climb out of her humdrum life, though she is confident in her own abilities. Into her life comes Paul Angeli, a new trainee she decides to hire. Paul is 25 years old and completely unskilled, but Carla covers for him when the need arises because of his other qualities - he's a thief, fresh out of jail and very good-looking. It's a case of good meeting bad. [TRAILER] Behind scenes of theft, spying, and betrayal, "Read My Lips" is foremost a drama about a dysfunctional couple. Many have labeled it a thriller, but that classification is incorrect. Sure, the film gains momentum as Paul (Vincent Cassel) and Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) become spies, and the movie's surprises come as a result of mysteries and double-crossing, but these "thriller" attributes are little more than a stage for this pair's far more gripping interactions. Finally, the French-produced "Read My Lips" is a movie that understands characters must come first. The title stems from Carla's deafness. She is an office secretary who must wear powerful hearing aids to interact with coworkers. As a result of her disability, she possesses the gift of reading people's lips from astonishing distances. One day Paul enters her office applying for a job, and Carla hires him on as an assistant. The notion of a secretary needing an assistant is odd, and the mystery of Carla's decision is one of the driving forces of the film. Paul is an attractive man, a hard worker, and a former convict. Each attribute sheds light on Carla's decision. Perhaps she was bored and wanted a friendly ear. Maybe she finds him attractive. When her innocent friendship with him leaps into criminal activity, the audience is no longer sure. Paul steals an important file for Carla. In return, she finds him temporary lodging, lies to his parole officer to keep him out of jail and eventually returns the favor, helping Paul steal money from loan sharks who come knocking on his door. Directed by Jacques Audiard ("Venus Beauty Institute"), "Read My Lips" is made with surprising restraint. Never is the action allowed to spiral out of control. Rather, the film's speed seems tempered to Paul and Carla's central relationship. To help Paul, Carla sits across the street from the loan shark's offices and reads lips through a window using binoculars. A clear tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," the suspense of not knowing what is occurring across the street is far more intense than when the mystery is revealed. And much like "Window," "Read My Lips" is far less about that distant window than those looking in. Truly provocative are the changes that occur in Carla and Paul, their reactions towards each other, and how the dynamics of their relationship change under their new partnership. In one scene Carla discovers a plane ticket in Paul's apartment. Is he intending to use her and hit the road? In another scene, after it has become clear that Carla finds Paul attractive, Paul launches into a sexual exchange only to be rebuffed by a shocked and surprised Carla. Do they truly find each other attractive or are they fooling themselves? The rest of the film teases us with partial answers to one pivotal question: Are these two interacting out of affectionate interest in each other, or merely manipulating the other for personal gain? Most thrillers dare not leave themselves open to such interpretation. They want to please, not confuse. A review of "Read My Lips" is not complete without mentioning Emmanuelle Devos. As Carla, she delivers a heartbreakingly sincere performance. Initially a recluse, we watch as she comes to terms with her loneliness, her feelings for Paul, her own sexuality and her role as accomplice. It is a difficult metamorphosis and few actresses could successfully project Carla's conflicted personality. "Read My Lips" is not a perfect film, but it creates an astonishing bond between the audience and its characters. As the plot unfolds, these two characters are intoxicating. When Paul finally crosses the threshold, going behind that infamous window across the street, the audience cares not as much about the loan shark and the money as it does about Carla's helpless observations. What does she really feel? Even the movie's climax, as Carla reads Paul's lips, is more about the culmination of their relationship than the frills of the "plot." The film's final scene is one of the best of the year. Not about a chase or a gunfight, it is a sublimely satisfying and intimate conclusion, proving once and for all what "Read My Lips" has truly been about.  
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