In the dark comedy A Private Life, Jodie Foster plays Lilian Steiner, a prickly, disagreeable Paris psychiatrist, so self-absorbed that she often fails to listen to her own patients. One of her patients dies, and Lilian is stung to be blamed by the family for their loved one’s suicide. More out of personal pique than any sense of justice, Lilian sets out to prove that the woman was murdered.
It’s very funny as Lilian blusters off, imagining potential suspects and projecting motive and opportunity. When Lilian reports a real crime, a burglary of her apartment, she’s so high strunf that the cops suspect that she’s a crank.
What’s even funnier is that Lilian presents the same compulsive behavior, lack of boundaries, and attachment issues that she is paid to treat in her patients. After all, what woman declines an opportunity to hold her first baby grandchild? Indeed, the whodunit is merely the vehicle for Lilian’s journey to personal connection.
Jodie Foster is very good as the ever-aggrieved Lilian, a role that must have been fun for her to play. Liliane is an American who has lived for decades in Paris, mirroring Foster’s own lifelong embrace of French language and culture. The movie’s biggest laugh comes when Lilian is stymied by what Americans see as the French over-vacationing.
Daniel Auteil, who has been nominated 14 times for a Best Actor César, is wonderful as Lilian’s adorable ex-husband. The rest of the cast is filled with French A-listers in minor roles (Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Efira, Irene Jacob). Vincent Lacoste is quite good as the son who expects his mom tp behave badly, but still can be surprised by a new outrage. The great 95-year-old documentarian Fredrick Wiseman sparkles in a cameo playing Lilian’s stern mentor, who calls her on her shit.
A Private Life was written and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (Grand Central). It’s a well-made diversion that you can wait to stream at home.