Read My Lips Reviews

By now, Jacques Audiard has turned out to be one of the most interesting French directors at work nowadays and his recent movies ('De Battre mon coeur s'est arrêté', ‘De Rouille et d’os’ et ‘Un Prophète’) were massively critically heralded. At the beginning of his career, Jacques Audiard made some other movies which didn't really reach an international audience but which were pretty good nonetheless. If I recall it correctly, I actually saw this flick in the movie theater when it was released and it managed to get some pretty good reviews at the time (in fact all the movies directed by Audiard have been well received which is something quite exceptional). Eventually, I did like it but it was missing something to become really remarkable. I mean, once again, Audiard managed to create some rather fascinating characters and Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos both gave also some really strong performances. However, even though the story was intriguing, it was a little bit too gimmicky and Jacques Audiard will manage to give some more compelling tales later on his career. To conclude, even though it wasn’t really a masterpiece, it was still a pretty good drama/thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in French movies.

Critics describe most successful thrillers as being "Hitchcockian." By this they mean that the film is well plotted, acted and shot. However modern "Hitchcockian" films, while aping the careful pacing and suspense of Hitchcock, lack his ability to compellingly portray human vulnerability and obsession. "Sur Mes Levres," however truly deserves the adjective–the real suspense in the film comes from emotional ambiguity between the leads, not just careful storytelling.