The Nature of Love

Monia Chokri‘s brilliant feature is one of the sharpest cinematic examinations of the paradoxical expectations we place on our relationships in the 21st century.

Steamy affairs and love triangles are not a recent cinematic invention ... but Chokri takes the familiar subject matter and crafts it with the whimsy of old and the depth of new.

A film that’s somehow sensitively enough directed by Chokri to make this extramarital relationship fizz and crackle beyond the usual smutty clichés.

The director has an expert light touch and the performances are exquisite. Blondeau has a beautifully expressive face of the kind that makes you want her to be in every frame, while Cardinal brings vulnerability and also earnestness.

Chokri’s film is both sharp and sensual in its comedic exploration of fucking around and finding out.

It is a mark of Chokri’s desire to explore her characters’ moral murkiness that she shows the relationship stuttering past these red flags into areas comic and transgressive.

Director Monia Chokri finds a language for communicating Sophia’s desire without putting her body on display.

Feels like such a duplication of the insights of “Take This Waltz,” while also struggling to even engage its own ideas, that it borders on pointless.

The Nature of Love is bold, charming, and funny in how it captures complacency in relationships and what happens when a woman craves more adventure and passion.

The Nature of Love is not ashamed of its complexes or its contradictions, and closes the story with a down-to-earth ending that adds layers to its discourse or the lack thereof. [Full review in Spanish]