“Thérèse” is a polished, capable adaptation of François Mauriac’s 1927 novel “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” about an intelligent, upper-class Frenchwoman who marries a dullish provincial landowner and suffers the consequences. While there’s a certain staid feeling to the production, it does deliver a solid working-over to the era’s gentry.
In a preamble set during an idyllic summer at a handsome country house near Bordeaux, we meet teenage Thérèse and her best friend, Anne, the daughter of a neighboring landowner. Thérèse already realizes that her future probably involves Bernard, Anne’s brother. Flash forward a few years, and Thérèse (Audrey Tautou) is about to marry the boorish Bernard (Gilles Lellouche), both aware that the match is being made more for dynastic than romantic reasons.
Happiness is not in the offing. Thérèse spends much of her time chain-smoking and staring sullenly into the distance. She gives birth to a daughter, which does nothing to slow the disintegration of her marriage and her inner life. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that Thérèse’s misery prompts a rash action, and for the families involved, keeping up pretences is paramount.
We are meant to empathize with Thérèse, though as Tautou plays her, she has long stretches of moodiness that test our patience. Sometimes her motivations seem ambiguous, and some will feel that her climactic response to her damaged marriage is a bit much.
“Thérèse” is a measured film, and you might occasionally wish it were less so, but director Claude Miller, who died last year shortly after finishing it, makes his point well enough.
