Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

People are voting emotionally.

Great Film overall

Absolutely brilliant

The plot is from farce. Old as the hills. Mistaken identity. It is the stuff of many a great comedy but this film is not funny. It is as dull as only the French can make dull films. Words. Words. And more words. In short, an unhappy married woman looking for her new shrink walks into the tax office next door. Yep. That's the hook. The guy that plays the taxman who is thought to be a shrink has got a couple of expressions. Big eyes, and even bigger eyes. Shocked and surprised eyes. But he doesn't have much else. An old office and hard to believe, not a computer in sight. The leading lady smokes a lot and tells him all her rude secrets. Wow! Light the fuse. Fun! Er... no. This is France. No fun. Just lots of terrible corny clichés like at the end when the dim witted woman flicks her lighter to show the flame of love is still there. I won't go on. This film is garbage and I only give it any stars at all for the idea not embraced.

It's very difficult to classify the genre of this movie. At times, it seems like a comedy, at others a dram and at other, perhaps, a romance. Regardless, it's a strange but enjoyable film.The film begins with Anna (Sandrine Bonnaire) going to the wrong office. She is looking for the psychiatrist but accidentally walks into a tax accountants office. She begins pouring herself out to this unsuspecting man, William (Fabrice Luchini) and he's just too shocked to say anything. On top of that, he thinks she might just be a client who needs to get some stuff off her chest. However, before he can set her straight she abruptly ends the session and leaves--vowing to return next week.When the follow week comes, Anna continues talking about her marital problems but, like the previous week, she suddenly changes her mind and leaves. Again, William should have told her he was not a therapist, but she really didn't give him a lot of opportunity.The following week she does not show up. And, instead, William goes to talk to the psychiatrist down the hall. He wants to contact the woman to explain the mistake but doesn't know her name--and the psychiatrist isn't about to break confidentiality to tell him. Where does all this go from here? Well, suffice to say, she does return and both Anna and William come to look forward to these sessions.I think this film works for several reasons. It's unique and charming. Plus the two leads do a very nice job. I particularly enjoy seeing Luchini in films and this the the third one I've seen recently--and I've seen a few others before this and particularly enjoyed him. Well worth your time but the dialog is occasionally rather adult, so it's not a film for your kids or mother-in-law.

I love this film! It's a very warm human story. While characters are having some serious life struggles, the film has no drama in it at all. It's very lighthearted and yet it makes you think about what we want more than anything else in life..Turns out that our strongest desire is "just" to be listened to and it also turns out that the person who listens doesn't have to be a therapist..The accountant, who voluntarily takes on a role of a therapist, does a much better job with his female "patient" than a real therapist would do in that situation because his responses to her story are natural and genuine and, what a surprise (!), this turns out to be very helpful to the "patient"! A total absence of drama and intellectual analysis of main characters' human struggles is what makes this story so compelling and the film so enjoyable to watch. For us, the US viewers, who live in the masculine culture of ideals as opposed to earthly humanity, this film is especially refreshing because it gets us in touch with our basic emotional needs that are often invalidated in our culture. A lighthearted nature of this film doesn't make its message any less profound. I don't know about the impression that the film gave others who watched it, because, frankly, I didn't read other reviews but it left me feeling more whole as a human being because it helped me discover that what we need most of all is to create a connection with other human beings where we and they could be who we truly are.

There's an intriguing premise behind Patrice Leconte's film 'Intimate Strangers': a tax consultant starts receiving visits from a woman who mistakes him for a therapist, but in time he starts to wonder whether it is in fact she who is deceiving him. With nice performances from its small cast, the film avoids descending into pure thriller, but unfortunately suffers from the opposite vice: that while the premise is enticing, the film never truly moves beyond it, ultimately there's too little story here and that which does exist feels somewhat contrived. In other words, the subtlety of the mood shifts within the story are overshadowed by the mechanics used to bring these about: the result is quiet and distinctive film, but also a modest one.