New Girlfriend (The)

What was that?!? A psycho-sexual catastrophe.

Ozon's most indefinable films to date and an all-time career low. Really, this is scraping the barrel's bottom.

3 main problems: (1) the source material, a 1985 short story by Ruth Rendell (?!), (2) Romain Duris, miscast and horrific, and (3) Ozon's  screaming inconsistencies.

It starts off like any old tearjerker...the untimely death of a mother, daughter, wife and best friend [with a handsome husband] (cue: lesbian subtext).

Major leap - in every conceivable department...the bereaved husband dresses as his dead wife and nurses the baby. In walks the best friend (with lesbian tendencies [and a handsome]) and all hell is let loose...

Duris' Virginia is a leering, ugly demon with the fashion sense of a hairy-faced, over-the-hill, heel-less hooker...the tragedy fast becomes an unfunny comedy...and then more hell is wrought upon us in the guise of a fraught psycho-sexual drama...as Virginia and the best friend with with lesbian tendencies [and a handsome husband] fast approach a torrid love affair...really, you wouldn't want to make this up!

Enough...the final act is a primordial monster...Frankenstein: eat your heart out. Cue: communal groan at the travesty on show.

On a more positive note: the soundtrack is toe-tappingly good!

Trailer...