Why so much hype?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

There's no doubt about it; if you're a Classical music buff you could do a lot worse than monitoring French cinema for, say, the last decade or two where you can select from such titles as Un Coeur en hiver, Les Chorists, The Piano Tutor, The Freelancers, My Children Are Not Like Others, All The Mornings Of The World, to name only six. Supplementing those titles is this feature debut by Sophie Laloy, best known as a technician in the Sound department, which rejoices in at least three separate titles, the original French (Je te mangerais), plus two English translations, Highly Strung and You Will Be Mine. Whether by accident or design it tens to resist classification and/or genre. Gifted pianist Marie has a chance to study for a year at the conservatory in Lyon but can't swing the freight on a room so she accepts an invitation from Emma, whom she hasn't seen since they were children, to share a large flat in the city which Emma more or less inherited from her parents (dead father, missing mother). Naturally Emma turns out to be a world-class Control Freak as well as a fully paid up Lesbian and as this is glaringly obvious in the first two reels it only remains for the director to decide whether she is making a psychological thriller or a Valentine to the sisterhood but it seems she has something of a Hamlet issue so the film caroms between the two genres like a pinball in a machine. Despite this it remains highly watchable and well acted by the two leads.

This is a French movie about an obsessive lesbian relationship. It resembles "Single White Female" in that has it has two young college students--an aspiring musician (Judith Davis) and a medical student (Isilde Lebesco)--sharing a flat in Lyon for financial reasons when one becomes dangerously obsessed with the other. The movie does make several brave choices, however, they don't quite work out and they perhaps serve to make the movie not quite as effective as it could be.First off, the movie really opts for realism and doesn't really cross into the lurid thriller territory of "Single White Female" or a lot of Hollywood fare. This is an admirable in a way, but it also makes it somewhat less entertaining. Of course Claude Chabrol has made an entire career of these slow-burning French thriller/melodramas, but the director here doesn't quite have his talent. The movie also doesn't really go for the lesbian sex angle. The lesbian relationship actually remains largely unconsummated and curiously, for a FRENCH movie, this actually has significantly LESS sex and nudity than "Single White Female" (it's the only movie of hers I've seen where the voluptuous Isild Lebesco does NOT take her clothes off). The movie also chooses to make both of the leads rather unsympathetic--one character is a self-involved opportunist while the other is a stalker--but then this is true of "Single White Female" as well, and is not necessarily a serious problem.Despite its flaws, however, I did watch this movie from beginning to end, and I can't say I'm sorry I did. Isild Lebesco is great in this. She's a very compelling actress (even with her clothes on!)and I think she could give a lot of Anglophone actresses a serious run for the money. Judith Davis is also quite good. This is no lesbian stalker classic. It's not as good as "Lost and Delirious" or "Single White Female" (although they're all very different movies), but it works better than some (like the recent "Jack and Diane"). It's not great, but I don't regret having watched it either.

Since the world was first disturbed by Fatal Attraction in 1987, the viewing public has been treated to many homages to this classic tale of obsessive love gone horribly wrong, and this film follows in what has now become something of a cinematic tradition. It is not clear exactly which experiences she had herself, but for anyone looking for a quality lesbian storyline, this would be a poor choice, even though distributors Peccadillo have the title on their lesbian list. Nor is it the perfect choice if one is looking for a story of obsessive love - if sexual orientation is not important to you in a plot, look no further than the towering performance of Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher – that is how obsession and desire should be played. Rather than offering a satisfactory lesbian storyline or indeed a gripping tale of obsession and its consequences, Highly Strung is more a story about the emotional immaturity of a number of people in their late teens or early twenties, and so it adds nothing new to this sub-genre. Disappointing. GR

This film is about attraction and repulsion between two female students, Emma (Isild Le Besco) and Marie (Judith Davis). Romance between girls can turn well and become real love as it was shown in the very light comedy "Imagine me and you". But it can also present real pain and end up in drama as in "Lost and Delirious". "Je te mangerais" belongs to this second category.Emma lives on her own in her parents huge flat in Lyon. Her father is dead, and her mother has vanished some time ago without giving any more news. She offers her only friend Marie to rent a bedroom in the flat, so that this one could pursue her studies of piano at the prestigious local music academy. From the day Mary moves in, we can see the development of a difficult lesbian relationship between the two girls. Emma becomes obsessed by Marie and tries everything to conquer her, but mainly with counter productive effects. Mary, navigates between confused, interested, tempted, scared, irritated and even disgusted feelings. She eventually becomes even cruel when after leaving the flat, she decides to come back with her new boyfriend.Both actresses do a good job but I really did not like the characters they play. You do no find the search of ideal and passion, expressed by Piper Perabo. Overall the whole film is a bit slow, predictable and joyless. It is not bad, but on the same subject I would rate the film from Léa Pool much higher.