Lucie Aubrac review

This is yet another quaint, slightly old-fashioned slice of Gallic life that requires more patience than you're likely to want to give it. Based on a true story and set during the Nazi occupation of Lyon during World War Two, Lucie Aubrac follows the lives of two resistance members, Lucie (Carole Bouquet) and her husband Raymond (Daniel Auteil). Slow and lumbering, it only kicks into second gear when Raymond is arrested in a raid and the gallant Lucie risks everything to free him from the clutches of the jackbooted Gestapo. Director Claude Berri is intent on giving his lead character far too much time to ponder her uninspiring heroism, with scene after scene of Lucie either striding purposefully through the streets or being consumed with soul-searching thoughts. And so, despite the fact that there are some highly commendable performances, Lucie Aubrac promises much but delivers very little that's intriguing or even interesting. No doubt inspiring to someone - - just not to us.