The first half promises a great deal more than is finally covered by the end of the film. The lyricism of the love story, the inevitable tragedy of the story between writer and muse, is disrupted as the film falls prey to the need to create a more up-beat narrative construct. The film feeds from the mythology of Orpheus leaving the underworld with Eurydice, but without managing to be faithful to its symbolic importance, and allowing immediate visual satisfaction using mirrors, as if borrowing from Medusa and Perseus. It seems as though it were a short story which ought to have been made into a short film, but was stretched out, and made more accessible, in order for it to become feature length.

The first half of the film which rotates around David Thewlis and Irène Jacob’s relationship is mesmerising, and touching in its representation of the everyday detail of a couple falling in love. Jim Fortunato’s role also fits into the whole, and breathes humour and lightness into the story. Although not as bad as Sofia Coppolla’s ‘cameo’ in the Godfather, Sophie Auster’s role seems to have been written into the script so as to give Sophie Auster a role, and nothing more. She may have a golden voice, but acting is definitely not her forte.