My god, the thing works. A film with all the trappings of a coy sex comedy blossoms into a nuanced portrait of two identities shattered by loss. Never has the phrase “pleasant surprise” been more apt.
I don’t know what I expected from The New Girlfriend, but I certainly didn’t expect anything this genuinely touching. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising from a director like François Ozon, but as it unfolded, I couldn’t help but admire it for subverting the punchline it seemed destined to become.
We open with small glimpses of what we assume to be a young girl dressing for her wedding — lips being colored, cheeks being powdered, and a hand closing a pair of eyes. But then the camera pulls up to reveal the complete picture: Laura , peacefully lying in her casket the entire time. Claire (Anaïs Demoustier), Laura’s partner-in-crime since grade school, tearfully leads her funeral, and we flash back through their all-too-brief life together. They did everything together — they even met their future husbands during the very same girls-night-out.
In the days following the service, Claire struggles to shake the loss, and her husband recommends reaching out to Laura’s widow, David (Romain Duris), to help each other through the grieving process. Claire stops by David’s house one day during a morning jog, and, as people often do in movies, barges in. What she sees stuns her: David is dressed as a woman, complete with wig and makeup, cradling his now motherless daughter. He explains to Claire that Laura knew of his desire to preset himself as the opposite gender, but it never left the two of them, and the longer he spent with her, the more his desire seemed to mute.
The film appears to ask one primary question, and then you realize it was simply baiting you into a different one: is David’s transition a subconscious attempt to keep Laura’s memory on ice, or was such an abrupt crisis the catalyst for a complete reinvention of himself — or perhaps herself? It’s a question of salvaging one’s life versus creating a new one from the rubble, and it’s a question that begins to take hold of Claire as well. Why does she enjoy spending so much time with David? She even lends him an alter-ego, Virginia, a name for him to use when they spend time together in the public eye. Is assisting him in what seems more and more like a permanent transition her method of coping with loss, or is it a springboard for a blessing of her own? Ozon wisely chooses to leave these questions in the air rather than on the table. We feel them lurking, but only in key moments do they reveal themselves explicitly.
All of the performances are note-perfect, but the way Romain Duris balances so much with is a wonder to behold. A lesser actor would be intimidated by the idea of losing himself in the role of a woman, but he scales between masculinity and femininity so seamlessly that, perhaps as intended, we begin to wonder which is David’s first instinct.
As much as I praise the film, it’s idyllic ending left me somewhat wanting. I’m not suggesting some pompous plunge into moroseness — I simply wonder if there was way to cap things off that rang less like a fairytale. I couldn’t honestly tell you. Then again, perhaps such an ending befits a movie that prominently features not one but two songs by Katy Perry, and without the slightest flicker of irony. I have to confess — that left the bubblegum queen in me rather beaming.
BLU-RAY SPECIFICATIONS:
One of the more beautifully photographed films I’ve seen in recent memory is given a fine, vivid treatment on Blu-ray. Colors pop without overwhelming, and the 35m photography is given a crisp, sharp presentation without sacrificing the softness and subtle grain-structure of the recording medium.
Special features include:
– A brief Making-Of featurette
– A collection of 10 deleted scenes
– The 2015 theatrical trailer
Spencer Moleda is a freelance writer, script supervisor, and motion picture researcher residing in Los Angeles, California. His experience ranges from reviewing movies to providing creative guidance to fledgling film projects. You can reach him at: [email protected]