Elle

Great movie and Huppert is an incredible actress who does a lot with her character. Made me want to move to France.

Isabelle Huppert, extraordinary and exquisite actress! Deserved awards for best actress and best foreign film in the Golden Globes.

Well...life is complicated...especially if youre French. But I actually kind of liked it in a perverse sort of way. Interesting story with a strong female lead.

I must say that Isabelle Hupert gave a pretty impressive performance in this leading role. As the name of the movie kind of reveals, the whole action spins around... HER. It is like an open spiral... we are guessing where it began... but its hard to predict where and when it will end. Altough the plot is overloaded with sexuality, it all evolves in a fairly natural way... It also depicts various stages in life when the meaning of feelings and emotions are continuously changing. The one thing I would skip is probably the interview at the end of the film, included as bonus feature.

good

An exceptional story in the far limits of passion, madness and suffering. Not for bland spirits, anyway. Huppert is simply awesome.

The French must really like their sex! That part was no surprise. But mixed in with a screwed up family and a collossal crime the story held it all together to he very end.

Huppert is what earns two stars for this bloated, pretentious mess of a movie! I loved her character in Piano Teacher, and the character she portrays in this one is cut from the same cloth. She is born to play these roles. She looks good too! For a Verhoeven film, this is crap! The film isnt shocking at all. It doesnt have to be shocking, but it could at least be a good film. It didnt resonate with me. Verhoevens films usually gut punch on a social satire level, but this movie is merely your typical, predictable, Hollywood crap with a little rape thrown in. Big deal! Some say that the story telling, and character development is what elevates this film over many others. I call shananigans on that too! Youll notice that every conflict the film throws at you, (and its a lot of them!) is nicely resolved at the end. A perfect little fit. Not one loose end or question will linger by the end credits. I guess its a satire of typical, lame Hollywood dramas. Sadly the movie only succeeds in being the very thing it attempts to lampoon. In conclusion, I highly recommend this to Huppert fans. Verhoeven fans should avoid this!

Sometimes the stars align for a film, as is the case with the legendary French actress, Isabelle Huppert taking the lead in Paul Verhoevens in-your-face thriller, Elle. Both the story and the star are superbly matched, here. It is almost cliche to say that Verhoeven is controversial. Hardly any of his English-language films, from Robocop to Basic Instinct did not generate strident conversations. Elle was not different -- is no different -- in its uncomfortable look at the role a strong-willed woman plays in a still male-dominated society. A middle-aged CEO of a computer gaming company in Paris is attacked in her home. Not particularly unique, except that rather than reporting the rape to the police -- which, lets face it, probably wouldnt do any good -- she decides to take matters into her own hands and find the perp herself. She might have gotten more than she bargained for as the rapist begins taunting her, and without spoiling anything, when she finds out who it is it is not only surprising, but a bit anti-climactic. Verhoeven and his lead actress use the unusual, but clearly-told story as a vehicle for interrogating issues of sexual predation, sexism in the corporate world and much else. Rather well, I think.

I freely admit that, being male, my concept of female enablement may not be what it should be. If, to you, the phrase means a film about a middle-aged woman striving to keep her partnership going while solving personal problems with her mother, father, partner, son, and daughter-in-law while dealing with being raped at the start of the film then this film will meet your criteria, as she succeeds at everything, in one sense or another. But the trailer identifies Verhoeven (correctly) as the director of /Basic Instinct/, thus making some implications, and, trust me on this, this is /no/ /Basic Instinct/. Not even close. It is well done, to be sure. It is more like /Parenthood/ would have been, had that picture focused on the single parent and ignored the related families. But /Parenthood/ was and is /far/ more entertaining. I also found one aspect somewhat interesting: the dialogue followed a pattern familiar to me from such films as /The Valet/ and /Moliere/. Since those films were farces, I had concluded that these patterns were used in farces, but this is no farce. So, apparently, the French talk this way all the time. Whod a guessed?