Review: Last Summer

Image courtesy of Janus Films.

French provocateur Catherine Breillat's latest film, "Last Summer," follows the story of a family's upheaval when its matriarch has an affair with her underage stepson. And you know that the 76-year-old filmmaker is among France's most scandalous directors when a film on this subject is registered as among her more tame offerings.

In the film, Anne (Leah Drucker) is a successful lawyer living in the Paris suburbs with her wealthy, older husband Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin) and she has seemingly works on cases involving young people - in some cases, they are abused; in another, she has helped to reunite a young woman with her estranged father.

All seems to be going fairly well until, one day, Pierre announces that his 17-year-old son from his first marriage, Theo (Samuel Kircher), is coming to live with them for a time. Theo is tall and gangly with floppy hair and often wanders around shirtless, bearing his multiple tattoos and giving off a petulant attitude. He is somewhat rude to Anne, but then he's seemingly somewhat rude to everyone, other than the two young girls who are his adopted sisters.

When a theft takes place at Anne and Pierre's home and is made to look like a burglary, Anne is quick to suspect Theo. But oddly enough, her confrontation with him leads to the two being more chummy. They hang out at a local dive bar and take a trip to the beach with his younger step siblings.

Things remain peaceful in the household until Theo makes a pass at Anne and things quickly escalate into a sexual relationship. It is during this midpoint that the film lags slightly through numerous - and somewhat langorous - sex scenes that are a far cry from the outrageous and graphic ones a viewer might expect from Breillat, whose previous films - "Romance" and "Anatomy of Hell," in particular - are not for the easily offended.

But it's when Theo and Anne's relationship comes to the attention of Pierre, and Anne takes to outright gaslighting to try to hide the relationship that "Last Summer" is at its sharpest and most tense. It's less of a spiral of destruction for Anne - although there are threats around every corner, from her nosy sister to a lawyer that Theo hires to intimidate her - but rather a fascinating glimpse at the lengths one will go to convince others - and, perhaps, even oneself - that the crimes of the past don't exist.

Breillat has always been a provocateur, although I found some of her more outrageous offerings - again, "Romance" and "Anatomy of Hell" - to be less interesting than her period piece "The Last Mistress" and her stunning masterwork "Fat Girl." Her latest might seem lightweight and toned down in comparison - and there are sections when the film lags a bit - but it's an overall effective, if a little slight, addition to her body of work.