El tiempo de los amantes

I found this to be much better than other reviews had led me to expect.

It's not a film that offers a moral or any special psychological insight. But it is very colorful, intelligent, and involving, I thought. (It is also VERY funny in spots!)

This is a film that offers a quite life-like portrait of two people at a particular juncture in their lives. There's nothing spectacularly memorable in the plot, but it offers its portrait in a very lovely, rewarding way.

Emmanuelle Devos is just wonderful in this. I've seen her in at least a dozen previous films, but I felt like I was only really seeing her in film for the very first time in this movie, so full and present was her role and performance.

So I'd say for fans and admirers of Devos, this film is a must-see.

As for Gabriel Byrne, I strongly disagree with reviews that suggest his performance was expressionless or monotone. He is after all playing a character who is genuinely bereaved, and he does convey a grim stoicism appropriate to such a situation. But that only serves to make the moments when he conveys notably different emotions even more affecting.

The characters played by Devos and Byrne are not the sole characters in the film, by the way, and this is not at all a film that takes place statically in just one location (which was the impression I had gained from reviews), so the film also offers varied scenery and a lively sprinkling of encounters with other personages.