The air-headed Audrey Tautou acquires a brain in this adaptation of a Francois Mauriac novel. She is heiress of thousands of acres of Aquitaine, including a huge stand of timber and miles of sandy beaches, and marries the man next door, who owns almost as much. She has a dreamy girl-friend (hubby's sister) who falls in love and is locked up for it, to marry the man of her family's choice. In short, Audrey is living in an open prison and decides to off her husband, who regularly takes four drops of arsenic for his heart condition. She forges a prescription and radically ups his dose until he nearly dies. The family sticks together and backs up her phony story, then locks her away in a tatty loft bedroom, deprived for ever of her infant daughter. Only at the end of nearly two hours does her husband announce that she is to be set free. She announces that she will move to a hotel in Paris and live her own life. On that happy note, the film ends, but not before we have lived through her hellish existence for a little too long. Recommended for Tautou's performance.

'Thérèse Desqueyroux' is a French drama set in the 1920s in which Audrey Tautou, as the titular Thérèse, is content to play the iconoclast in her stuffy husband's family. But when her best friend (also her sister-in-law) describes her passionate relationship with an attractive young Portuguese man, Thérèse's emotions take a more sinister turn. My one complaint about this is that as Thérèse's husband (played by Gilles Lellouche) is such a central part of the plot it's a shame he is portrayed as such a one-dimensional duffer, ignorant of his wife's feelings in the most stereotypical way, but apart from that this is quite an enjoyable production, both in terms of the plot and the idyllic coastal scenery in which much of the film is set.

Clearly Audrey Tautao has now acquired sufficient clout to cherry pick her roles and equally clearly she is weary of playing adorable air-heads and, looking around for something with which to display her acting chops, came up with Francois Mauriac's old war-horse of a novel from 1927, already filmed half a century ago by Georges Franju. Claude Miller was a sick man - he actually died shortly after the shoot - and arguably in no position to say nay so here we are. No one is going to accuse this of being a laff riot in fact Tautao cracks a smile only on one - or possibly two - occasions otherwise it's all very sombre, long takes, longer faces, an attempt to make boredom photogenic, for yes, Therese and Madame Bovary are sisters under the skin albeit Therese has a tad more sand, and has also a little in common with Madeleine Smith, late of Edinburgh. Gilles Lellouche turns in yet another fine performance and the movie tests high on atmosphere but I doubt it will find its audience.

This film is about a blue blooded woman marrying a tycoon, but quickly finds out that marriage is not a thing she likes.The title "Thérèse Desqueyroux" doesn't give the plot away, but the Hong Kong Chinese title does. As a result, I kept guessing how the plot will turn out. Initially, we see Thérèse having a rather entangled relationship with Anne, which may or may not have played a part in her dissatisfaction in Thérèse's subsequent marriage. Then, the marriage itself is portrayed well, with the husband giving Thérèse much love that is clearly not reciprocated.However, all these supposed seeds that led to the deed did not adequately explain Thérèse's criminal action. Without a plausible motive, I was left to wonder exactly why she did such a horrible deed. Such a lack of motive may drive suspense and keep viewers on edge, but in "Thérèse Desqueyroux" it only serves to confuse.In addition, the subplot between Thérèse and Anne, and between Anne and Jean were left hanging, which was quite a pity. The amazing contrasts between the pre-deed, post-deed and liberated Thérèse could not help to lift "Thérèse Desqueyroux" to becoming a great film. I think it is a good film but it is unfortunately masked by hanging subplots and confusion.