A Private Life is a contemporary murder mystery with a strong affinity for Agatha Christie, as well as a flair for Hitchcockian suspense. The premise isn’t extraordinary, and is relatively low-stakes when compared to the countless other directions a story like this could’ve gone. However, Rebecca Zlotowski’s campy black comedy has an interest in why the solving of such cases may serve the maintenance of the status quo. The desire for answers isn’t just a pursuit of justice, but a means to provide closure and avoid further interrogation. These ideas, while didactic, are enough to illuminate a routine mid-life crisis dramedy and slightly elevate it.
Jodie Foster is Lilian Steiner, an American psychologist who’s lived in Paris for the majority of her professional career, even if she can’t shake the feeling that she’s an outsider. Steiner’s family life has collapsed due to a strained relationship with her son, Julien (Vincent Lacoste), who’s been cagey about introducing her to his own child. While respected by her clients, Steiner is caught off-guard when her regular patient Paula (Virginie Efira) is found dead by suicide. The abrupt nature of the loss is enough to get Steiner to question the effectiveness of her profession, but the situation is turned more personal when Paula’s husband, Simon Cohen-Solal (Mathieu Amalric), suggests her incompetence was to blame. While not haughty enough to believe she was incapable of error, Steiner’s learned enough about Paula to believe that her death wasn’t self-inflicted. Steiner’s subsequent decision to take up a personal investigation into Paula’s potential murder has unintended consequences when she’s thrust back into the life of her own ex-husband, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil).
A Private Life goes a step beyond where most murder mysteries would begin because of the uncomfortable realities revealed about the case. Steiner’s greatest strength as a professional, which also deteriorated her family life, is her willingness to be completely objective in dealing with those that seek her help; she’s even made a habit of recording conversations with patients so that she can analyze them in a distraction-free environment. But human behavior can’t be determined by objective means, and it's soon after her meeting with Paula’s family that Steiner’s made to feel apprehensive. By treating Paula’s mental health as a puzzle, Steiner may have deprived her patient the opportunity to find a confidant. It’s not enough to shake Steiner’s understanding of Paula’s behavior, but it's an effective enough motivation for her to take the case into her own hands; whatever faults she had as a mother and wife, Steiner’s unambiguously loyal to her patients, and willing to serve them, even in death.
The subtext about irrationality and determinism doesn’t prevent A Private Life from having the hijinks that have become quintessential to this sort of story. There’s a gag early on in which Steiner must determine the medical reason why her eyes have grown to water, and doesn’t entertain the possibility that she may have been brought to tears. The investigation itself is also a tour of French high society, and has ample room to satirize the peculiarities masked by the self-imposed importance of Parisian dining, art, and public works. Steiner’s still an American who has the capacity to be wowed by the history and formality of French infrastructure; the suggestion that Steiner has the behavior of a tourist is a clever one because Simon has accused her of being merely a tourist in his wife’s affairs, and not someone who’s emotionally engaged.
A Private Life is less interesting when Paula’s case is left on the back burner for the sake of flashbacks that add a mystical, borderline supernatural quality, which doesn’t congeal with the overall tone. Nonetheless, Foster’s chemistry with Auteuil is charming because of the sharp contrast in personalities. Steiner’s a character who feels being immune to distraction is a positive quality, even if some of the greatest insights are found lurking on the margins. It’s a mature depiction of a middle-aged relationship because A Private Life’s implication is that Steiner and Gabriel are now much better-suited to be life partners than they were when they first met. It’s not only a fun way to get a closed-off character like Steiner to open up, but an important lesson that “playing the long game” can reap benefits not found when life is spent checking items off of a list.
Foster’s a fascinating performer because she had the benefit and hindrance of widespread acclaim at an early point in her career; after two Academy Award wins before she turned 30, Foster had no way to outdo her own success. Her roles as of late have been interesting, with both The Mauritanian and Nyad routine biopics she was able to infuse with personality. Foster may have been content to supersede expectations in run-of-the-mill material, but A Private Life required an active choice to be vulnerable, and at times the butt of a joke. The smooth navigation between English and French, and the dialects associated with both, is an athletic achievement, particularly because Foster wouldn’t have seemed like the natural first choice for the part.