Read My Lips (3 out of 4)

Starring Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel. Directed by Jacques Audiard.

A love story-cum-film noir, Read My Lips is a mish-mash of genres that contains some notable performances, but ultimately contains a very sloppy and unsatisfying ending.
Carla Bhem (Emmanuelle Devos) is a half-deaf, unhappy secretary working for a construction firm. Exasperating her life is the fact that she wears a hearing aid in both ears - making her the constant butt of many a joke when she's out of ear-shot. But Carla can understand everything they say because she can read their lips. One day, Carla hires a young trainee named Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con whom she finds attractive. In an unusual series of events, Carla and Paul decide to help each other out: Carla teaches Paul some good manners and, in return, Paul teaches her how to help him out on a heist.
The chemistry between Devos and Cassel is palpable and credible, and director Jacques Audiard manages to weave an Hitchcockian tension in the film's final reel. Unfortunately Audiard decides to complicate what could've been a very easy and plausible end to the proceedings with a violent and irritating one.Pity.

Publication Date: 2002-10-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1833