Synopsis
A bourgeois housewife, planning to go back to work as a physiotherapist after having devoted 20 years to her husband and two children, has her comfortable, elegant life turned upside down when she falls for a Spanish builder and begins a runaway affair.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Kristin Scott ThomasSuzanne
- Sergi LópezIvan
- Yvan AttalSamuel
- Bernard BlancanRémi
- Daisy BroomMarion
- Aladin ReibelDubreuil
- Alexandre VidalDavid
- Berta EsquirolBerta
- Gérard LartigauLagache
- Geneviève CasileLa mère de Samuel
Recommendations
- 75
Observer
Kristin Scott Thomas breathes new life into a woman who was invented by Flaubert and copied by Francoise Sagan. - 75
Movieline
Leaving is a bit too dry and controlled, as well as too relentlessly bleak, to be a satisfying melodrama. - 75
New York Post
The plot isn't a new one (remember Lady Chatterley?), but Corsini gives it a few twists and turns that keep matters fresh and suspenseful. - 60
Empire
A vital, if slight, study of selfishness and fractured relationships, Leaving is illuminated by the odd, off-balancing twist. - 60
Variety
Tightly wound and crafted, with robust performances by Kristin Scott Thomas and recurrent Spanish Don Juan Sergi Lopez, the picture offers a rough, no-frills take on a story as old as France itself. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Scott Thomas is an accomplished actress who can do passion as well as she can do light comedy. But she never quite convinces as a woman prepared to endure every humiliation to pursue her dream of a new life. - 50
The New York Times
Here, a contemporary French white woman who yearns for liberté, égalité and fraternité is as much a prisoner of her circumstances as women were once upon a time and still are in some cultures, though truly it's all the clichés in this film that make her a captive. - 40
Village Voice
In any language, the actress (Kristin Scott Thomas) does what she can to best serve her scripts, even when they're hopelessly beneath her.
