If You Don’t, I Will

Arrête ou je continue

Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos star in a satirical drama about a couple who take to the country for the weekend and get more than they bargained for.


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  • Director Sophie Fillières
  • Producers Maurice Tinchant, Martine Marignac
  • Screenwriter Sophie Fillières
  • With Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Brochet
  • France 2014
  • 102 mins
  • Sales Les Films du Losange

The mere presence of French stars Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric, with their stellar back catalogues, guarantees a must-see for many viewers. Happily, Sophie Fillières’ sardonic dramedy provides its own distinct pleasures. The stars play Pomme and Pierre, a jaded, sniping forty-something couple whose relationship tailspins on a weekend hike, when Pomme decides to remain in the wild. Pomme’s woodland misadventures, including unconventional sleeping arrangements and goat-wrangling, add novel texture and subtext to Fillieres’ canny depiction of mid-life crisis. The lead pair are predictably wonderful together. However, her previous collaborations with Fillières (Ouch, Gentille) notwithstanding, this is Devos’ show, rising to her role’s considerable physical and emotional challenges. Like the couple’s wry frozen champagne toast, this is a high-class, fizzing concoction with a surprisingly icy kick.

Leigh Singer