Susan Granger’s review of “Read My Lips” (Magnolia Pictures)
Don’t miss French writer/director Jacques Audiard’s risky, neo-noir thriller about the unexpected relationship between a lonely, mousy secretary and a street-savvy ex-con. Carla Behm (Emmanuelle Devos) is the shy, overworked, underappreciated receptionist/secretary at a Parisian property development firm. She’d like to be a deal-maker but her serious hearing problem has made her socially inexperienced and timid. When she’s told to hire a secretarial assistant, she chooses an unlikely candidate, a handsome but coarse former thief named Paul Angeli (Vincent Cassel) who has no office experience. To compensate for her partial deafness, Carla’s learned to read lips – a skill which intrigues the criminally inclined Paul – and the tortuous, twisting plot revolves around how they complement and exploit one another. Passive/aggressive Carla manipulates Paul to elicit revenge against a sneaky co-worker who has harassed her, while Paul cleverly involves her as a rooftop spy and cohort in a nefarious caper involving the theft of a stash of cash. Too bad there’s a time-consuming subplot about Paul’s parole officer (Olivier Perrier) and his missing wife which seems totally superfluous. Pivotal to this compelling character struggle, Emmanuelle Devos (“Esther Kahn”) delivers an amazing performance which won France’s prestigious 2002 Cesar Award – and she’s matched scene-by-scene by Vincent Cassel (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”). Jacques Audiard’s intelligent, intricate, unpredictable screenplay, written with Tonino Benacquista, also received a Cesar Award. In French with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Read My Lips” is a subtle, sinister, suspenseful 9. Carla and Paul emerge as outlaw heroes, a Gallic Bonnie and Clyde.
