I shall tread cautiously on plot details. Madeleine and Nina are older women passionately in love. By itself, this is refreshing, as we rarely see this type of randy lust and the joy of togetherness on anyone past a certain age onscreen. The two women live opposite one another, with both apartments serving as love nests. After much time in this arrangement, the duo are ready to consolidate their living quarters by selling their respective apartments and relocating from France to Rome, the place where they first met. Nina appears to be a free agent, but Madeleine is a widow with two grown children, Anne (Léa Drucker from “Custody”) and Frédéric (Jérôme Varanfrain), and a grandson Théo (Augustin Reyes). None of them know about Nina. To them, she is simply Madame Dorn from across the hall.
While Anne is close to her mother, Frédéric is distant, cold, and often mean to Madeleine. He accuses her of cheating on the father he considers a saint. Whether he has proof is never explicitly declared; the notion alone is enough to make him antagonistic enough to ruin Madeleine’s birthday party. This event was supposed to coincide with Madeleine’s decision to out her relationship with Nina and reveal their subsequent relocation. However, Frédéric’s animosity makes it difficult for her to deliver the news, and worse, gives her second thoughts about the move altogether. Meneghetti and cinematographer Aurélien Marra shoot the scene where Nina realizes Madeleine has no intention of relocating by having the latter witness the revelation through a window behind her. It looks and feels lifted from an espionage thriller.
This type of disappointing news usually serves as that plot element in every romance where the relationship is temporarily rent asunder. However, “Two of Us” has a much bigger bombshell of a plot development to drop immediately after its customary blow-up scene. I will not reveal what it is, except to say this type of separation would prove insurmountable in a less hopeful movie. Suddenly, decisions are being made against the lovers’ wills by people whose best intentions blind them to the palpable, aching desires of two women who clearly want to be together.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46trqhln5t6tr%2BMpqavoZViv6bCyJ6uZmpgZ34%3D