The up to date Franco-Belgian cinema definitely doesn’t lack for movies about poisonous relationships and home abuse, with Xavier Legrand’s “Custody” and Valérie Donizelli’s “Just The Two of Us” among the many current finest. An impressively shot, tension-filled drama a couple of lady attempting to flee from an abusive, controlling husband, that includes sturdy performances by French-Canadian thesps Monia Chokri and Nils Schneider, French writer-helmer Géraldine Nakache’s “Think Good” is fairly textbook as this stuff go. Nevertheless it features an additional piquancy from being centered on a contemporary Orthodox Jewish couple, with choose spiritual rituals and guidelines impacting the drama and the visuals. Fest and boutique distributors ought to suppose good about this title, which unspools on this yr’s non-competitive Cannes Premiere sidebar.
Parisians Gil (Chokri, president of this yr’s Digital camera d’Or jury at Cannes), a digital camera assistant on movie shoots, and Jacques (Nils Schneider), a businessman, meet in Dubai the place he sweeps her off her toes together with his intense love-bombing. When she turns into pregnant, she considers an abortion, however he talks her into marriage, regardless of the very fact they barely know one another.
Either side of the couple are Jewish, though Gil enjoys her faith with out a lot ritual or public observance. For Jacques, nonetheless, inflexible adherence to the outward guidelines of his religion are necessary, but in an early inform of his pathological aspect, he cautions Gil to not point out her being pregnant to their Rabbi (Daniel Cohen) or the operator of the mikvah the place she should immerse herself earlier than their marriage ceremony.
Shot in Scope, crammed with intimate closeups of the couple, the movie lets the viewers expertise the identical upsetting jolt as Gil over Jacques’ need for management and poisonous possessiveness. He continuously belittles her very regular wishes comparable to desirous to return to work, saying it could make her a foul spouse and a foul mom. If she argues with him, he accuses her of making drama and being egocentric. He doesn’t prefer to be round her associates or her household — and he doesn’t like her to spend time with them both. He at all times inquires suspiciously about her ex, about the place she has been and who she has talked to. Generally he’s aggressive and generally passive-aggressive. The specter of bodily violence lurks within the air.
Because the movie strikes backwards and forwards in time, we witness increasingly disturbing incidents. One of many hardest to observe, for its sheer psychological cruelty, takes place on the hospital after Gil offers start to their daughter Thais. Gil’s excited mother and father Annah (Clémentine Célarie) and Alain (Christian Benedetti) arrive alongside together with her associates Agnes (Mina Kavani) and Ibrahim (Oussama Kheddam) to congratulate her. Jacques blocks them from getting into the room, saying that Gil wants her relaxation. Annah’s ensuing anguish is so uncomfortable for the others, that Ibrahim and Jacques virtually come to blows.
After the infant is born, Jacques strikes them to an remoted spot within the countryside, making it troublesome for Gil, who doesn’t drive. Not content material with a child monitor within the nursery, he installs them all around the home. When Gil objects, figuring out that he desires to spy on her, he calls her unreasonable. With its wooden and glass, the fashionable home seems open and cozy, however for Gil it looks like a jail. DP Sylvestre Vannorenberghe supplies continuous visible reinforcement of her emotions, comparable to when she desires to exit, however sees Jacques lurking on their backyard swing like an enormous spider.
Nakache, right here helming her fourth characteristic, grew up in an Algerian Jewish household and makes her characters’ faith greater than mere window-dressing for the story. In a cheering late growth that gives momentary aid from the strain between the couple, one other encounter with the sympathetic Dubai rabbi provides some smart path for the sad Gil.
For the report, Nakache is the sister of director Olivier Nakache, who has his personal 2026 characteristic (co-directed with Eric Toledano) boasting Jewish characters referred to as “Just An Illusion.” The title comes from Gil’s mom’s not significantly useful recommendation, “If you think good, good things will come.”
