Steineded How sad is this?

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

newjersian Reading that the movie is a thriller based on Georges Simenon's novel, I expected to see a good French adaption of the book. However, there was no suspension and no thrills in what Mathieu Amalric did with a good story. Even the episodes shown on TV channel ID are more intriguing and more entertaining. I am always wondering why the French movie makers tend to mess up their stories. Somebody can call it an intelligent movie, but it looks more like a pretentious and muddled change of scenes. Simenon's story had a great potential, but Mathieu Amalric succeeded to kill it on the screen with both his script and his direction.

SnoopyStyle Julien Gahyde (Mathieu Amalric) and Esther Despierre are former classmates and having an affair. Julien is married to Delphine with a daughter Suzanne. When Esther's pharmacist husband is found dead, Julien is brought in by the police for an interview. Then Delphine is found dead and the police suspects poisoning.I find this a muddled, confused, and flat telling of a possible murder mystery. The odd thing is that it's deliberately muddled, confused and flat. It's reworking the traditional crime drama. It's admirable but I don't think it works. The tension is all gone. There are no thrills. I don't think we even see the dead bodies. Mathieu Amalric is a great actor but the flat telling keeps the audience at a distance from the characters. There are moments where one gets glimpses something deeper in his character but he keeps the mask on for most of the movie. It's hard to say if the truth is revealed and that's kind of the point of the movie.

ltdwsr-77674 Just watched this movie & thought it interesting enough to read the original novel from whence it came when it's published in English in early 2016. What cracks me up in all these French Flicks is the Male Stars are always these little sleazy, wimpy, unclean looking weird guys and the Female Stars are always attractive, younger (and taller) women. For instance in this Flick this is exactly the case. The Mistress is attractive, probably a foot taller and 10 years younger than the Male Star. Why she repeatedly jumps in bed with this guy is a wonder to me. Maybe I'm just envious, but really? It must just be annoying for French Actresses to always have to play lovers, wife's, mistresses to these Frogs. On the other hand it must be great to be a French Man! I'd be really curious if any female reviewers really find the Male Star of this movie attractive or worthy of their attentions.

Paul Allaer The Blue Room" (2014 release from France; 76 min.) brings the story of a man and a woman. As the movie opens, we hear the moans and whispers of a couple making love. Turns out to be Julie and Delphine. Pretty soon we come to understand that they are married, but not to each other. Delphine whispers to Julien: "Imagine what our days could be like, if we ran away". Little does she know what is to come... Just a few minutes into the movie, we then jump to the present day, where Julien is being interrogated at the police station, but we don't know why. To tell you more of the movie's plot would surely spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this movie is based on the book of the same name by famed Belgian crime writer Georges Simeon (he died some 25 years ago). This prolific author has written dozens and dozens of crime novels, and many have been made into a movie. (I grew up in Belgium in the 70s, and he had the reputation of a giant.) Second, this movie is very much a labor of love for French actor Mathieu Amalric, who not only plays the lead role of Julien, but also directed the movie. Third, as the movie started out, I thought that this might be a "Fatal Attraction"-type movie, but as it turns out this is very much a police and court drama. A huge chunk of the movie plays out in the interrogations at the police station, even though it is interwoven with plenty of flashbacks as to what exactly happened. For those of you not familiar with the continental European criminal justice system, you will be in for a few extra surprises, as the differences with the American criminal justice system are profound. Also noteworthy is the very unusual screen ratio (almost but not quite 1:1). Last but not least, there is an outstanding orchestral score to the movie, composed by Gregoire Hetzel, and I only wish it was used more extensively in the movie (there are long sections where no score is used)."The Blue Room" opened without any pre-release hype or fanfare at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati in late October/early November (it only played a week). The early evening screening where I saw this at was not well attended (less than 10 people) but frankly I was surprised there were even that many people for this. Bottom line: I thought that "The Blue Room" was a nice change of pace from the crime dramas that we are used to in the US. If you like French movies with lots of talking and not much 'action' per se, I'd readily recommend you check this out.