SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

rosscinema Gerard Depardieu can sometimes come off on screen as an oaf and other times he can be smooth and charming. I think his direction in this film can be described as the latter. This film starts out in 1962 in a small French city where Georges (Depardieu) is looking for work and decides to apply with a construction company that is going to be building a bridge. Georges wife Mina (Carole Bouquet) is bored with her life and goes to the cinema as often as she can with her son Tommy (Stanislas Crevillen). One day at the cinema Mina notices a man near her crying during the film. After the film they talk and he introduces himself as Mathias (Charles Berling) and it turns out he is her husbands foreman at work. Soon Mina and Mathias are having an affair while Georges is away with the work crew. I liked the pedestrian pace that Depardieu sets for the film and the cinematography is very well handled. Its a very good looking film and it surprised me that Depardieu could be so impressive directing. They're is a lot of symbolism in this film and of course its apparent that the bridge that Georges is lending his hand to build represents an exit out of their relationship. Another thing that I found interesting was the tomato plants that Georges seems preoccupied with, they seem to also symbolize George and Mina's marriage and when George knows his marriage is in trouble he spends his time tending to the tomato plants.*****SPOILER ALERT***** The last scene pretty much sums up where both characters are headed in life. They both meet by accident at a gas station and both of their cars are pointed in different directions. Film is written with a very mature focus to it and when Georges finds out about his wife he's not violent and doesn't make a big scene. He seems to understand it. No, he doesn't like what has happened. But he's such a level headed lug that it would be wrong to argue. Some viewers complained about the slow pace, but I found it refreshing. The characters stand out even more when a film is paced this way. Hollywood, are you listening?

George Parker "The Bridge" is a slice-of-French-life flick which, like many French films, is fatalistic, character-driven, and an almost plotless film about life. The film tells of a middle class housewife and mother who has an affair. The adulterous relationship is treated cooly by the husband (Depardieu), the wife (Boquet), and her lover (Berling) in this film in which, beyond the principals, everything else is just so much window dressing. Well acted, not particularly artistic but technically okay, "The Bridge" will appeal most to aficionados of French cinema while other will miss the sex, nudity, melodrama, and other appurtenances of a typical Hollywood product.

cestmoi Despite the wonderfully wrenching performance of the boy (Stanislas Crevillen) this Bridge lacks foundation to support the relationship that turns on a tear. Motive matters. And a thoughtless and irresponsible and unsympathetic role Bouquet is saddled with, besides a 16th arrondissement visage in a maid's role, does not allow the viewer to ultimately care, though the sympathies do lie with the boy and the dad. This tranche de la vie is a bit stale, n'est-ce pas?

Gonzalo Melendez (gonz30) Carole Bouquet is a revelation as a woman approaching middle age (a long way from her Bond girl origins), and Charles Berling and Gerard Depardieu are in their usual top form. But the screenplay, adapted from a French best seller, but with a radically changed ending, is not the French BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY as some claimed. The screenplay tells an all too familiar story that even its excellent actors and technical team cannot overcome. In its fourth week of release, the public and the critics reflect these sentiments.