Just a Sigh

Devos manages to keep it afloat in the second half as the actress peels away for her own adventure and writer-director Jérôme Bonnell develops a subplot that will force the lovers to part for good.

"Just a Sigh" lives up to its name. It disappears without a trace.

"Just a Sigh" charms, with its scenes of street musicians, philosophical debates and headstrong romance, as much as it poses dilemmas of fate and desire.

A bracingly romantic drama that's alive with a mature sense of passion and mystery.

You may complain that "Just a Sigh" is too episodic to cohere and that Alix's eccentricities are plot mechanisms. But to me, this fateful day-in-the-life feels believable.

French cinema has built many a masterpiece on the foundation of what may, on the surface, just seem like women wandering around. Sadly, 'Just A Sigh' is no 'Cleo From 5 To 7' or 'The Green Ray'.

Bonnell's latest is a surprisingly effective two-hander, conveying an unprecedented emotional depth about passion, the performance of it, and how life has a surprising way of reminding us how to feel alive.

Ultimately, Just a Sigh is a mediocre, "day-in-the-life" film that would have made an incredible short, as one gets the sense that this is far too stretched out to qualify as a solid feature-length film.

A complex experience, the pleasure of Just a Sigh exists mostly in its visuals, tonal shifts and performances.

It adds up to a classy French melodrama that takes the strangers-on-a-train trope and produces an engaging love story.