You will not easily find a review or description of A Private Life that does not begin with Jodie Foster and her first full French performance, which quickly becomes the film’s defining element. At best, the film stays out of her way; at worst, it slips into confusion. Yet Foster, magnetic and fully committed, proves once again that she belongs to that rare group of actors who can make any film worth watching.
She plays Lilian, an American psychoanalyst in Paris who cannot accept the suicide of a patient. Her refusal leads her into hypnosis sessions, hallucinations, and a tangled investigation into the patient’s family. These paths are often murky and rarely engaging, and after an opening that promises style and the possibility of a sharp character study, the film scatters into too many subplots and choices that never quite connect. What works best lies outside the central mystery: Lilian’s relationship with her ex-husband, Gabriel, played with warmth by Daniel Auteuil; her brief moments with her son, Julien; or the humiliation of being turned away at a funeral. The investigation itself, with its puzzle-like hypnosis sequences, never blends with the film’s more grounded tone, and the discoveries it yields only push the story further from its center. After a while, the details matter less than watching Foster—how she listens, how she reacts, how she carries scenes with conviction, and how she makes us believe in her character’s struggle.
In the end, A Private Life belongs to Foster. The role asks for intensity, vulnerability, and commitment, and she gives all three, turning an uneven film into something that still holds your attention whenever she is on screen. Ignore the investigation and it plays best as the portrait of an interesting and confident woman trying to hold herself together against all odds.