SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

bjarias ..yea.. she's a real winner... ..she teases and torments her 'friend' to his ultimate demise.. ..and with her other love interest, she feels very strongly about him, but must leave and go far, far away... for he is just too beautiful, and although he proclaims he loves her, in the end she knows he will ultimately leave her for another.. ..(and who decided to cast him in that role.. at times he looks and acts more like a student than they do).. ..all that, and a bunch of confusing side story lines, adding nothing at all to the main story.. ..the French have mastered these kinds of productions.. too bad in this one the efforts of a good number of talented young actors went to waste

wilhelm-22 This film desperately tries to be deep but ends up being utterly superficial. Beautiful actors, Nick Drake soundtrack and excellent cinematography can't hide the fact that this is a confused and amateurish story without a message. The main problem is the script: we never get to know the characters, we don't understand what motivates them. There is no real "story" to follow, no beginning and no end. Time after time the filmmakers seem to forget the main characters/story line and far to much time is spent on subplots and side characters that don't interest us, since they haven't been introduced earlier in the film. The actors are OK but the script just doesn't give them anything substantial to work with.

bostonfilmfan The latest Cristophe Honoré's film is a logical continuation of "Les chansons d'amour". The last phrase in the latter was "Love me less, but love me longer". And how long exactly can one love? "La Belle personne" is Honore's answer to this question. According to the director, unfortunately, love doesn't last forever, at the end it's a very disappointing feeling and the only honest conclusion for it can be the one that happened to Otto. It's a highly sentimental film done in a crude style. The film's composition is very smart, with the storyline that appears messy for most of its duration, but all the loose ends come together by the end, when Junie makes her brave and unexpected decision (a great surprise of the film). All the sideline events seemingly distracting from the main story lead Junie to this particular decision, more in the 17th that in the 21st century style, but justified by all she has seen and by her own uniqueness as a "completely honest person" and a "very strong person" (according to others).The choice of actors is excellent, as always the case with Honoré. I would like to mention Léa Seydoux who has an amazing presence, which was crucial for the story to make sense. Although far from being a standard beauty, she possesses the ability to convey mystery and look beautiful while being sad. Luis Garrel is another actor with a great magnetism who makes the story credible.In general the film is done with an impeccable cinematographic taste and it's impossible not to mention the song by Alex Beaupain, which just like in Dans Paris, is the only song in the film, but sung right on screen in the emotional climax of the film, and just like in Dans Paris, it occurs like the most natural thing.La belle personne, like the director's previous films, requires a very attentive viewing or maybe more than one viewing in order to notice the details, and the details are crucial for the adequate interpretation. In some instances, it is also important to know some French (the crucial conflict of the lost/found letter story gets resolved once Nemour points out to Junie that from a grammatical point of view it's written by a man, and not by a woman – the moment unfortunately completely omitted from the English subtitles). Otherwise the viewer might feel lost in curious images without appreciation for the creator's concept.

fnorful and that pretty well sums up the deepest message of this adaptation of "La Princesse de Clèves". Having seen this at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival, I will admit to not having an appreciation of Christophe Honore's other work, have not read the book, nor did I recognize any of the actors. The film is put together reasonably well technically. Everyone is young, thin and good-looking, with many a fine pout below a classic Gallic countenance. There were (too) many relationships to track on a first viewing, and I did not understand the motivation for most of the characters. Why does everyone fall in love with Junie? Why does she break down and cry in class? As a high school-age tale, the self-absorbed interpersonal world is apt, with enough sexual tension and romantic intrigue to satisfy the requirements of this genre.