Tautou will make you fall for 'Loves Me'

By Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times

Audrey Tautou, who starred in "Amelie," is a woman in love in Laetitia Colombani's "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ..." Samuel Goldwyn Films 'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ...' Unrated; adult themes, violence In French, with English subtitles 92 minutes

Tautou's Angelique is an art student of much promise, but she's so in love with the doctor that nothing else much matters to her. Never mind that he is married and that his wife is pregnant; he's sure to leave her, insists Angelique to her concerned friend Heloise (Sophie Guillemin), with whom she works part-time at a neighborhood bar.

Yet that very evening, the doctor stands Angelique up, and, worse yet, fails to show up at the airport, where they are to take off for a two-week holiday in Italy. Not surprisingly, Angelique starts unraveling. Just as she plummets to the nadir of her despair, some 40 minutes into the film, "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ..." abruptly rewinds speedily right smack back to its opening shot to commence telling its story from the point of view of Le Bihan's Loc, a good-looking man of about 30.

This abrupt shift happens not a moment too soon, for although the doctor has come across as a cad, Tautou's wide-eyed-waif-turned-wounded-dove has herself become pretty insufferable in her self-pity. But as Colombani continues with this shift in point of view, her film gradually evolves into a chilling psychological suspense thriller.

"He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ..." is an impressively assured and confident first film, and has been made with such attention to detail and mood that it's possible to regret not paying closer attention to its cleverly deceptive first part. It is ultimately unsettling in the utmost, its creepiness leavened by only the slightest touch of pitch-dark humor.

It's important not to give away anything more, but Tautou is to be commended for such a radical departure from her "Amelie" image. Having shown us so many facets in a screen career that began only with "Venus Beauty Institute" in 1999, Tautou can't help leaving us to wonder what else she is capable of.