A Private Life ★★½

Director Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life is a fun and mostly light murder mystery comedy centered on psychiatrist Dr. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster). Her patient Paula (Virginie Efira) recently died, reportedly due to suicide. Paula’s husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric) blames Lilian – Paula overdosed on medication prescribed by Lilian – and the accusation sends Lilian into a spiral. Determined to find an answer to how Paula died, Lilian is convinced that there must be more to the story. As her investigation deepens and she leaves no stone unturned, she comes up with a list of suspects – as well as another death connected to Paula’s family that appears to be suspicious – and teams up with her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) to make sense out of the ever-growing web of information.

There is a bit more to A Private Life than first meets the eye. It is a murder mystery in terms of story, but it is mostly concerned with examining Lilian. She is driven by guilt and a desire to absolve herself of the feeling of being responsible for Paula’s death in any way. Her personal life is a bit messy and she has long been kind of a cold individual. Her marriage with Gabriel ended due to her loss of affection; she has a fit after Paula’s death where she keeps crying and is so shocked by it that she seeks medical attention (a quietly hilarious sequence and tragic implication), and her son Julien (Vincent Lacoste) practically never sees her and she refuses to prolong any infrequent visit with him to see her grandson. She intentionally keeps those she cares for at a distance, only finding an intimate connection with her patients and she laments there is only so much one can do with that as a psychiatrist. She is there to observe and to try to help them, not interfere. Paula’s death has essentially shocked her to life, forcing her to confront the finality of one of her frequent interactions – Paula had been a patient for many years – and assess whether keeping those she loves at a distance was truly worth the isolation and the fractured relationships. Zlotowski and co-writers Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé further add plenty of Jewish identity nuance to Lilian’s character – she is a Jewish-American – which is brought to the forefront in a scene of Lilian undergoing hypnosis and there is an element of analyzing the role of a psychiatrist. It is something that Lilian is quite knowledgeable in, but as she will realize, she may have been coming at it from the wrong perspective all along and missing some of the crucial details along the way.

A Private Life can be a bit buttoned up at times, but it is also a patently ridiculous film at others. The hijinx Lilian and Gabriel get up to in their investigation are a prime example with Foster and Auteuil sharing a wonderful chemistry with one another, both romantically and comedically. They have a natural flow together that really works, especially given their character’s history. Their impromptu visit to Chérence where Lilian felt drawn to after hypnosis is a prime example, both in their scheme to investigate Simon’s current activities and their close encounter with nearly being detected before putting any of their plan into action. Foster has an incredible ability to sell even the wildest elements of A Private Life, showcased in a dinner scene between herself, Gabriel, and Julien. Trying to relate the story of her hypnotic vision and how it has taught her something about her relationship with Julien, Lilian stumbles through her drunkenness and the wild twists and turns of her vision – which essentially placed her as a male cellist in love with Paula in 1940s France while Julien was aligned with the Nazis and had interrupted a performance to arrest Lilian – with full earnestness. Foster threads the needle in expressing the awkwardness of the story for everyone else to hear and Lilian’s full-hearted passion in believing these past lives to be real, for them to be revelatory about her current circumstances, and to be completely unaware of why it would be upsetting to hear about it all.

While it can be funny and the acting impressive, A Private Life feels a bit stretched out. Lilian’s efforts are a very slice of life spin on a murder mystery. She jumps from one loose thread of clues to another, always convinced she is about to find a smoking gun that reveals one suspect or the other as the killer. There is always a new lead to chase down. Even innocuous conversations reveal genuine clues or motives, but never quite in the way that Lilian expects because she is so focused on absolving herself of guilt in Paula’s death that she cannot approach them with a clear head. Zlotowski does not hide Lilian’s motivation from the viewer – in fact, she is called out for it by her own psychiatrist – and the intention is clear, but at least in terms of mystery and pacing, A Private Life can feel like it is spinning in circles a bit. It has one take on the whole murder mystery angle and keeps offering it up, finding more success when it focuses on the personal journey that Paula’s death takes Lilian on than in trying to drive up suspense over who is involved in the death.

Nevertheless, A Private Life is a fun and often goofy film. Seeing Jodie Foster tackle a role almost entirely in French is a rare treat, while Foster gives a characteristically terrific performance that anchors A Private Life. A strong supporting cast surrounds her, with Foster and Daniel Auteuil’s exploits providing plenty of heart and laughs along the way. It may be a bit stretched out, but Rebecca Zlotowski’s mystery comedy can be a relaxing, quaint, and charming film.