Leaving (Partir) (2009)

69% of critics liked it
(62 reviews)
47% of users liked it
(13,444 ratings)

A riveting new drama by the prolific French filmmaker Catherine Corsini, LEAVING (PARTIR) stars Oscar-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman prepared to abandon everything in pursuit of passion. A success with critics and audiences alike at the Toronto and Seattle film festivals, this elegantly… More A riveting new drama by the prolific French filmmaker Catherine Corsini, LEAVING (PARTIR) stars Oscar-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman prepared to abandon everything in pursuit of passion. A success with critics and audiences alike at the Toronto and Seattle film festivals, this elegantly told tale of intrigue is not to be missed. Kristin Scott Thomas is Suzanne, the bourgeois wife of a successful doctor, Samuel (Yvan Attal), living together with their children in the south of France. Weighted down by a thrill-less lifestyle and a stale marriage, Suzanne falls for the handsome young Ivan (Sergi López), an immigrant ex-con working on their property. Their affair is passionate, but Suzanne is wracked by guilt. When she confesses to her husband, his retaliation begins an ugly turn of events. -- (C) IFC

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 25 min.
Directed By: Catherine Corsini
Genres: Drama, Romance, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Oct 1, 2010 Limited
On DVD: Feb 22, 2011
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
If Leaving is a romantic parable, it is a dark and depressing one, emphasizing not the sensuality of attraction but rather the obsessive side of romantic behavior. This is mad love for sure, and that is not usually a pretty picture.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
The only reason to see "Leaving'' - and it's not a bad reason at all - is for the sight of Kristin Scott Thomas in a rare happy mood.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
If "Leaving" is a story of a broken marriage, what, exactly, went wrong?
Tom Long, Detroit News
This is one of those films that depends entirely on its star, and Thomas mixes sexuality, giddy flirtatiousness, stoic determination and agony in just the right amounts, without ever straining.
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
Thomas' face, tremulous with desire one second, steely with anger the next, holds the screen every second. But the actress deserves richer material.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Kristin Scott Thomas is not only one of the best English actresses of her generation, she's one of France's best, too.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
With a terrific central performance from Kristin Scott Thomas, Leaving is a thoroughly gripping emotional drama that plays like a sun-drenched film noir.
Anthony Quinn, Independent
Leaving tells the kind of painful story -- of passion, betrayal, revenge -- we might read about every day in the papers, but it is the cool manner of its telling and an outstanding central performance by Kristin Scott Thomas that sharpen our interest.
Andrew Schenker, Slant Magazine
This alternation between frenzy and calm is the key to Corsini's aesthetic, a strategy the director employs in order to both introduce a modest tension into her otherwise tired material.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
Even for the routinely terrific Kristin Scott Thomas, the infidelity-themed Leaving is a top-drawer thesping workout.
James Verniere, Boston Herald
The fact that her children have their lives upended by their mother's yearning for Lopez's low-born, bad-boy loser makes matters both worse and more idiotic than plausible.
Alicia Potter, Boston Phoenix
[Thomas] remains a mesmerizing mix of carnality and class, and through richer and poorer, she keeps director/co-writer Catherine Corsini's bourgeois fantasy from overheating.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
As Suzanne's stair-stepping recklessness leads ever downward, from secret rendezvous to public humiliations to thievery and worse, "Leaving" trades sympathy for surprise.
Jeff Meyers, Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Between the terrific performances and artful cinematography, this is one high-class piece of melodramatic crap.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
Thomas, bless her, remains compelling throughout. But it gets harder and harder to watch the things "Leaving" forces her to do.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
While "Leaving" is a tragedy, it's also a celebration: of the way a fine actor can tell us a story, barely needing words.
Jason Best, Movie Talk
Corsini's story veers close to lurid melodrama, but her star's performance is ... nakedly honest ... Suzanne risks everything for love ... Scott Thomas is equally fearless.
Enrique Buchichio, Uruguay Total
Brutal retrato de una pasión arrolladora, y de un deseo de escapar casi tan inevitables como el mismo acto de vivir. Gran trabajo de Kristin Scott Thomas, quien vuelve a encontrar una inmejorable oportunidad de lucimiento en el cine francés.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Cynthia S

Really good!! My take on what happens after the movie: Suzanne gets a good lawyer and recuperates in a mental hospital because she was raped and driven temporarily insane. The lovers get back together, restore the rock house and live happily ever after. Maybe they could make a sequel,… More
Really good!! My take on what happens after the movie: Suzanne gets a good lawyer and recuperates in a mental hospital because she was raped and driven temporarily insane. The lovers get back together, restore the rock house and live happily ever after. Maybe they could make a sequel, and call it, "Coming". --copied from another reviewer, but I thought it was so great that I had to put it here. :)
Gordon A

Unconvincing tale of infidelity from a 'middle-aged' female's perspective which has original elements but I didn't believe the women's choices even given 'armour fou'.
Daniel P

One of several European films I've seen this year that has what is essentially a very ordinary story but that is made with such conviction and power that I was left dumbstruck at the end. <i>Leaving</i> unusually has our lead confessing her affair to her husband very… More
One of several European films I've seen this year that has what is essentially a very ordinary story but that is made with such conviction and power that I was left dumbstruck at the end. <i>Leaving</i> unusually has our lead confessing her affair to her husband very early on and the route it takes - the result of that affair - is what propels the story. Admittedly, not a whole lot in terms of plot actually happens until the bleak and very effective final third, but what a final third, with Kristn Scott Thomas simply brilliant as Suzanne. The critic Mark Kermode was right when he said she does "staring into the void" very well; when her happiness is taken away it is written all over her face. Uncomfortable viewing that has stayed with me, but cinema par excellence.
Daisy M

Leaving, portrait the love triangle situation between husband, wife, and lover. Kristin Scott Thomas played the unhappy wife who wanted to feel alive again, when another man arrived in her life, and the dangerous game started: But the intelligence of the movie was in how the love… More
Leaving, portrait the love triangle situation between husband, wife, and lover. Kristin Scott Thomas played the unhappy wife who wanted to feel alive again, when another man arrived in her life, and the dangerous game started: But the intelligence of the movie was in how the love triangle was presented,showing nothing then passion, attraction,and destruction, portrayed with a cold view, that left the viewer speechless and with no sense of any possible solution. There was no romance, no sweet words, great sex and hard facts, and what opinion one may have of betrayal, either for man or women, their life could never be like before and with no easy way out. Kristin Scott Thomas delivered a great performance, with her natural middle age beauty in this tragic, mixture of sadness and desire for passion.In the end she proved to be the weakest in the triangle.