The way that The New Girlfriend speeds through the film’s exposition with a
cleverly stylistic and dialogue-free opening sequence, I was certain that
filmmaker François Ozon (The Swimming
Pool, 8 Women) was rushing in a
specific direction. Instead, The New
Girlfriend wanders aimlessly throughout a number of different tones and
ideas, never committing to any one direction enough to fully deliver. Moments
of the narrative seem to have the social sensitivity and relevance of a movie
like The Danish Girl, though the
peculiarities of sexuality are nearly turned into tools of ominous suspense and
mystery, all wrapped up in a series of scenes that awkwardly shift tones between
comedy and melodrama.
