Susan Granger’s review of “THE WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE” (Lions Gate Films)
French film-making is alive and well, as reflected in Patrice Leconte’s fateful, feverishly romantic saga revolving around Juliette Binoche, who is nominated for an Oscar for “Chocolat” and is a previous Academy Award winner for “The English Patient.” Set in 1850 and based on true events, Binoche is Madame La, the wife of the military commander of St. Pierre, a small French island off the coast of Canada, and the story revolves around the bizarre, intimate triangle formed by her, her husband (Daniel Auteuil), and the convicted murderer (Emir Kusturica) she tries to rehabilitate through compassion and trust. While Binoche and Auteuil are acclaimed Gallic actors, Kusturica, the Bosnian director of films like “Black Cat, White Cat,” is a complete surprise as the gruff fisherman who has been sentenced to death for killing a neighbor in a drunken rage. By law, his deed requires capital punishment but there is no guillotine (“the widow” in French slang) and no executioner on the remote outpost so, while waiting for the apparatus to arrive from Martinique, he works as her gardener/handyman and, through a heroic deed of great strength and bravery, earns the respect of the townspeople. Utilizing a sublime visual style, director Pierre Leconte (“The Girl on the Bridge,” “Ridicule”) evokes the underlying passion and eroticism within the brutal, bleak, wintry atmosphere and cleverly questions the ambiguous concept of capital punishment with contemporary, if melodramatic subtlety. Although the pacing gets a bit plodding at times, the acting is brilliant. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Widow of St. Pierre” is an exotic, enigmatic 8, particularly appealing to adults who love sensual, historical drama.
