The Housekeeper

Reviewed by PETER CALDER

Herald rating: * * * *

The sexually charged romance between the middle-aged man and the sexy young woman is a movie staple, one suspects, largely because most film executives and directors are middle-aged men.

French director Claude Berri is on the far side of middle age (he'll be 70 this year) and looks back on a 40-year, 20-film career which includes the 80s epics Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. The wisdom that comes with that experience - and perhaps a Gallic shrewdness in affairs of the heart - gives him a fresh perspective on the story which makes for a wistful film devoid of prurience.

Its central character is fiftysomething Jacques (Bacri), a newly separated recording engineer whose life takes place in the sound booth, the bar on the corner and his hopelessly messy Paris apartment. One day he spots an ad for a housekeeper in the local bakery and hires Laura (Dequenne), even though she's never done housework before.

The reason for his decision is delicately explicated at their first meeting which plays out like a blind date; the erotic charge is faint but unmistakable, but somewhat stronger still is the sense of Jacques' longing for something he lost and fears he may never recover.

When Laura's boyfriend dumps her and kicks her out, Jacques is a sucker for her tearful plea that he take her in. It's unsurprising, perhaps, that the pair embark on a shaky romantic involvement, but the course of the affair is anything but predictable. They take off to the Brittany coast to visit a mate of Jacques (who has an unusual way of celebrating his chooks' lives before he kills them for cooking) and the romance unfolds in unexpected ways.

Berri, who wrote the screenplay from a novel by Christian Oster, observes his characters unsentimentally, always alive to their weaknesses but never judging them. He is alive to the faintly comic potential of the situation - she likes loud hip-hop while she vacuums; he's partial to cool, smoky jazz - but at heart The Housekeeper is a gentle and slightly sad film rather than a male wish-fulfilment fantasy. There's no question that Bacri's performance is subtler and more textured than Dequenne's but together they conjure up an affecting rumination on the vulnerability of middle-age to the sexual allure of youth.

Cast: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emilie Dequenne, Jacques Frantz, Catherine Breillat

Director: Claude Berri

Running time: 90 mins

Rating: M (low-level offensive language)

Screening: Lido and selected cinemas