Leaving (2009 film)

Facts

Plot

Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas), is a well-to-do married woman and mother of two in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle begins to depress her, and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. Her husband, Samuel (Yvan Attal), agrees to fix up a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and Ivan (Sergi López), a Spanish ex-con hired to do the building, meet, their mutual attraction is sudden and violent.

After multiple trysts with Ivan, she confesses the affair to her husband, and she promises to give it up, but finds she cannot. She finally decides to give up everything and live her all-engulfing passion for Ivan to the fullest, but her husband will not let go of her; her daughter rejects her, although her son stays connected to her. The new couple soon face severe financial problems, some of them caused by Samuel: when her credit card is rejected, she is forced to sell her Cartier watch at a gas station. In their extreme need, Suzanne and Ivan rob Samuel's house of its paintings and valuables, but Ivan is arrested when he fences the stolen goods for them. Suzanne tries to convince her husband that she was solely responsible for the burglary, and that she only took what was hers. She offers to do anything to keep Ivan out of jail, and her husband tells her that if she comes home, Ivan will be free. At this dilemma, she faints.

Back in their home, Suzanne is distant with her family, yet tolerant of her husband's sexual advances. Soon, though, she takes a rifle and shells from a closet, and kills Samuel as he sleeps. Driving through the night, she is eventually reunited with Ivan at the ruined house in the hills they had once dreamed of restoring. They embrace and she sobs hysterically. In the distance, a police siren can be heard.

Cast

Reception

The film has been moderately well received by critics, and currently holds a rating of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.