My King

Maïwenn is the French actress and director who came to prominence when she made Polisse, the gritty portrait of officers in France’s juvenile police division, and a Cannes winner in 2011.

Her return to the Croisette is unlikely to gather her any accolades for this rather turgid drama about a couple who seem totally unsuited but get it together to have a relationship, marriage and a child.

Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Bercot (the director of the festival’s opening film Standing Tall here pluckily taking a main role) put all their energies into making it work.

Unfortunately, despite a promising start when Bercot’s character Tony comes a cropper on the ski slopes and has to go in to rehabilitation, it’s all downhill. From there, it takes us in to flashback mode, revealing how she met the charismatic Giorgio (Cassel) and fell head over heels yet again. He, it is later revealed, has commitment issues, a drug problem and financial difficulties for which Tony as his spouse also has legal responsibility.

On the periphery of her doomed romance are Louis Garrel, in thankfully more subdued form than usual as the sympathetic brother, and the brother's wife (played by the director’s sister Isild Le Besco).

As well as coping with Tony’s mood swings, Giorgio is suffering emotionally after a former girlfriend’s suicide, prompting Tony to harbour suspicions about his previous conduct and possible infidelity.

Despite all the histrionics clearly there is not enough here to fill a two hour running time, which quickly begins to show.