The Nature of Love (2023) Poster

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6/10
Quite boring Quebecian love story
BoBo_Goal3229 January 2024
No expectations there, what so ever. Went without knowing a thing about that movie, except the fact it's a Rom-Com. Well, it is one of those sophisticated and over the top romantic comedies, that want to challenge the genre, but when you look at it in retrospective, you realize you've seen the same...once again.

The two main characters are falling in a mad ridiculous love story a little bit after an exposition that shows the audience its main character Sophia, which is married to Xavier for about a decade and they seem to be bored out of their asses from marriage life. At an evening with friends, they are talking about the essence of life and it all get down hill from there.

Once Sophia meets Sylvain she realizes that she needs it - this mad and uncontrolled love, to spice up her boring life. She finds excuses within the words of famous philosophers and tells all her friends and mother, about the new thrill in her life. We all know where it is going to go on the next stages and we all know exactly that there isn't love that lasts forever with the same fire like the one in the beginning.

The Class differences and the gaps from each and every direction will bury the naïve thought of careless and endless pure beginning-love and the movie, with all its strong points, like the way it tells the story, the cinematography, the crazy chemistry between both actors on the leading roles, still remains banal and even quite boring and is stretched for at least thirty minutes too much.

The musical score is reminding something from the sixties or seventies and I took a look at my phone, to see how much time is left too many times - it is the final stamp for something that won't cross the bar. It is built well, directed great and acted good, but seems like gluing from a lot of other familiar movies with no original statement to provide to the world, except that it is from Canada.
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7/10
Good and bad things
aheaven200523 September 2023
There's a lot of good things in Simple comme Sylvain. The chemestry between the two main actors is awesome and the tension is incredible in the first act. Christine Beaulieu is also fantastic in a perfect anticasting. Bonus points for Still Loving You being so well integrated. Sadly the direction and photography just annoyed me too much and make me loose immersion. There's a point in the film where all shots are claustrophobic, use a object to hide parts of the characters, are digitally cropped and loosw resolution or leverages a veil. There's also that annoying fast zoom that just takes me out of it. Sad because other than that it was a great movie.
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7/10
Simple and quirky romantic comedy
chenp-5470820 February 2024
Romantic comedies usually aren't my favorite genre but filmmaker Monia Chokri creates a simple, sweet and fun romantic movie with strong performances, interesting camerawork, atmosphere, and style.

Throughout, the narrative is the typical romantic comedy setting with interesting themes of social class, sexuality, exploration and connection but Chokri's direction, writing and approach to the narrative works as it's clear the movie doesn't take itself fully seriously and there are some interesting and creative choices to explore the characters and setting. The characters are interesting to explore while at times some of the developments and dialogue moments between them felt a bit too forced and left to be desired.

The performances are pretty good with each actor giving wonderful chemistry and moments together. All in all, while it's not something grand or amazing, it's a good fun romantic comedy movie with a good energy. French Canadian cinema is oftentimes not discussed much and it deserves to be discussed more.
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10/10
Quebec masterpiece
alexduhamel941 October 2023
Wow. I enjoyed every second of the movie. Gorgeous cinematography, amazing acting & chemistry, original, touching, funny, beautiful.

Since I'm originally from Montreal (Quebec), I deeply felt a connection with the way the movie was approached. It felt so familiar to me and every character was someone I know in my daily life. I was so connected to the story and the atmosphere.

The subjects of the movie like social classes and feminine sexuality are also rarely shown in a movie the way it was shown in this. It was not pretentious at all, it was just meant to exist on the big screen. The shots were so original and creative....

I am also shocked to learn that this movie is not the one representing the Canada at the Oscars 2024.....shocking!

The last time I was mindblown with a French Canadian movie was when Mommy by Xavier Dolan came out.

I highly recommend!
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10/10
Stellar and complex
martinpersson972 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
This incredible drama, with some humouros elements, is definitely an incredible low key drama by an all around stellar director.

The actors all do an incredible job, as one would expect from such a stellar cast, and they convey the humour, sharp and witty dialogue, and class differences splendidly. It is a low key, subtle and very unique, well paced and splendidly written script overall. The actors and the script accompany each other beautifully.

The cinematography, cutting and editing is incredible, very low scaled and beautifully put together.

Overall, definitely an incredible and poignant drama, one of the better of the year, and highly recommended for any lover of film!
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9/10
Love, desire, Boredome and...Chaos
jeybouchard3 March 2024
Loved that film! An authentic journey into Quebec culture.

Acting is great, pictures are magnificent, but the thing that got me hooked was the amount of great moments of discomfort and chaos. Made me uncomfortable but in a way I enjoyed.

*** Dont believe the bad reviews***

First, it is not a romantic comedy. While comedy is present, it is pretty dark and I would describe it more as a drama, as well as a love dilemma.

Also, I saw reviews saying it is very much based on stereotypes. While a part of that might be true, you have to remember it's still a movie so it has to be a bit polarizing. But, as quebecois that lived both in Montreal and the suburbs/coutryside, I could relate to every situation in the film and I have to say, it was very accurate.

Loved the ending too.

9/10.
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1/10
Rotten Peach
taurushulk25 April 2024
Possibly the worst film ever, apart from the sequence, that was restaged. Acting is dreadful, camera work amateurish, reflecting the impoverished state of culture in today, the film so repulsive, despite its attempt to capture a compelling narrative, it actually looked away at times. The reason for wasting everyone's time on a conductor often criticized for his histrionics has something to do with vomiting, precisely another commercial that been sponsored by moron tobacco & vape company, do nothing just smoking & mating only, so naive & childish, terrible, dumb, if don't know how to make a film, just donate money to people, minus ten for rating. Recommend Coco Ferme, better than this one a lot.
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