Movie Review: ‘Let The Sunshine In’

Review by Jacquelin Hipes

Dating is hell. There, I said it. Mismatched expectations, self-centeredness, and insecurity can all thwart the quest for love, sometimes at great expense to one’s self esteem. After enough time, finding the lightheartedness in another failed encounter can be difficult. Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur), the latest film from Claire Denis, endeavors to do just that. Middle-aged Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) has yet to find her soulmate…and not for lack of trying. Yet all her efforts are unfortunately focused on a string of unimpressive men.

There is chubby financier Vincent (Xavier Beauvois), who finds her “amusing” but could never abandon his “exceptional” wife for such a common lover. Narcissistic and controlling, he spends the majority of their time at a bar barking orders at an impressively unruffled waiter. Isabelle casts him off in favor of an actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle) that complains about the drudgery of nightly stage performances while guzzling an endless stream of beer. Neither man expresses much interest in Isabelle beyond the momentary distraction she provides. To her credit, Isabelle has a breaking point they and her other lovers eventually meet as she sets aside one man for the promise of another. Her earnestness doesn’t always necessitate naiveté, although for a time it can blind her to some blatant flaws.

Some pronounced swings in temperament don’t always land well, however. When she expels Vincent and his two dozen roses from her apartment it’s a moment of resolution worthy of cheers. As Isabelle’s frustration and disillusionment mount, though, her outbursts demand less sympathy. She berates a friend as he gives a tour of his (admittedly expansive) country estate. After having doubts planted about never meeting the friends of a recent boyfriend whom she met out dancing (Paul Blain), she breaks things off, citing as a problem the same nonchalant attitude she defended earlier.

There’s a reasonable amount of emotional whiplash involved for viewers but Binoche’s performance steadies the film. She turns in a career-best, navigating the ups and downs of Isabelle’s romantic life with a delicacy that keeps the story balanced. Her finest moments come not in the passionate acceptance or rejection of suitors, but in her near-wordless reactions to some of dating’s more absurd moments. When Duvauchelle’s actor drones on about his unfulfilling—but comfortable—life, the change in expression from bemused tolerance to thinly veiled derision should look (and feel!) familiar to many women. She negotiates each successive lover like obstacles on a course: at first hopeful at conquering them and later irritated that, despite her best efforts, they haven’t yet gone away.

Gérard Depardieu slips into the film’s final scene as a clairvoyant, offering predictions and hopes for Isabelle’s future love life. He and Binoche play off one another well in a melancholy end to the prior dramatics. Though Isabelle may not have found her soulmate yet, the tenacity of her pursuit impresses. That Denis ends her film with a plea for openness casts a forgiving light on romances of the past and encourages hope for those still waiting in the future.