The Nature of Love: 'sly, sexy and smart' French-Canadian rom-com

"The Nature of Love" is a French-Canadian film about a professor of philosophy "who considers herself happily married but then encounters a builder and sparks fly", said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. This makes it sound like "one of those "Confessions"… films, or an airport novel, but it isn't". It's "sly, sexy and smart". 

Written and directed by Monia Chokri, it stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau as Sophia, the professor, who is married to fellow academic Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). When they need to get their summer home renovated, Sophia hires the "rugged" Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) – and soon they are "tearing each other's clothes off".

But Chokri gradually makes it clear what different worlds the lovers inhabit. Her family is rich and welleducated, while he comes from a "working-class" background. He "wears bad shirts", mispronounces words and is "a little bit racist". The film does recycle "romcom tropes" but it does so "knowingly". The "performances are exquisite" and "the chemistry between the two leads is electric". 

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Chokri has said she wanted to shoot the film "in the manner of a nature documentary", so it is filled with "exterior shots peeking in at intimate moments", and "interior shots gazing out", said Ryan Gilbey in The Guardian. Unfortunately, this "fussy visual style" prevents us from "becoming absorbed" in the film's "tempestuous romance". 

The camerawork is so stylised it is ultimately distracting, agreed Saskia Baron on The Arts Desk. And the film never really decides whether it's a "sexy romcom, an essay on class divisions or an exploration of female sexuality".