Three Friends (Trois Amies)

Rebecca (Sara Forestier) somewhat naively seeks a romantic connection with a married man and Alice (Camille Cottin) champions a pragmatic approach to relationships, in which personal feelings take a back seat. Meanwhile, Joan (India Hair) realises she has fallen out of love with her longtime partner Victor, the father of her child, and decides she cannot continue living with him under these circumstances. Her guilt over the ensuing consequences causes a ripple effect that will inform all of her future relationships.

French director Emmanuel Mouret, whose filmography proves that he has a penchant for romantic comedy, counterbalances the tragic components of the primary storyline with enough levity in the script to make Three Friends feel like a matured representation of the genre. Fascinated with the capricious nature of love, the feature is a little text-heavy: dialogue and the delivery thereof take precedence over grand visual presentation. There is a gentleness to the performances that keeps viewers engaged in the characters’ respective fates. Still, as the protagonists’ partners change and their dilemmas stay the same, there are elements that become redundant and the length of two hours isn’t sufficiently substantiated by the material. Another rather unnecessary gimmick is the narration guiding the audience through the events they see unfold before them; save for two scenes pertaining to the character speaking off-screen, it has a slowing effect throughout the film.

While Three Friends spends most of its runtime exploring the women’s various relationships to men, the title is not wrong: the friendship between the three is where the real magic happens, when personal happiness is sacrificed in order to avoid a friend’s suffering. Those who enjoy watching complicated but steadfast female bonds in the likes of Sex and the City, as well as any fan of French comedy, will have a blast with Mouret’s ensemble piece.

Selina Sondermann

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