When a woman falls in love in the sensitive French slice of life “Other People’s Children,” you may fall, too. The director Rebecca Zlotowski (“An Easy Girl”) makes it easy to swoon with her seductive Parisian scenes, as the camera sweeps over the city’s shimmering lights and narrows in on the equally radiant smile of the heroine, Rachel (Virginie Efira). Everything looks so effortless and attractive, including the graceful way that Rachel moves through rooms, how she slides into a Metro car just before the doors close and how she opens herself to new love without hesitation. The enchantments of her life can make it seem like a fairy tale.
From the get-go, though, Zlotowski makes it clear that Rachel isn’t waiting for a man either to complete her or deliver her into a happily ever after. And as soon as you meet Rachel, you know she has a full life, with nurturing relationships and gratifying work as a high school teacher. Her father and younger sister are loving and supportive, her colleagues pleasant. She also has time for other pursuits, including guitar lessons, which is how she meets Ali (Roschdy Zem), a car designer. Zlotowski is a fast worker, and by the time the opening credits are over, Rachel and Ali are already side by side in this subtle, surprisingly deeply felt drama.
Things between Rachel and Ali progress rapidly in brief, viscerally lived-in scenes humming with cheerful energy. The two are immediately so comfortable with each other that when Rachel asks to meet Ali’s young daughter, Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves), he warmly agrees. Just 4½, Leila is a charming pixie and, after some friction, she and Rachel take to each other. Ali shares parenting with his ex, Alice (Chiara Mastroianni) — the two are on good terms — but Rachel steps into the role of a caretaker, as well. She picks Leila up from her judo classes, shepherds her around and settles into an intimacy that looks a lot like love.
“Other People’s Children” is romantic — tender, sexy, very French — but even as Rachel’s relationship with Ali deepens, growing more committed and consequently richer and trickier, you never lose sight of the sweep of her life. Zlotowski mixes scenes of the lovers in with interludes of Rachel alone and with other people, as if to remind you of the character’s horizons: She’s alive to love but also to the world. She gets stoned, goes to parties, works diligently; at school, she flirts with a colleague and supports a troubled student. She also hangs out with her sister (Yamée Couture) and together they attend shul with their father (Michel Zlotowski) and visit the grave of their mother, who died when they were children.
Manohla Dargis
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