Suzanne is a well to do married woman and mother in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle gets her down and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. Her husband agrees to fix up a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and the man hired to do the building meet, the mutual attraction is sudden and violent. Suzanne decides to give up everything and live this all engulfing passion to the fullest.
This is one of those films that depends entirely on its star, and Thomas mixes sexuality, giddy flirtatiousness, stoic determination and agony in just the right amounts, without ever straining.
– Tom Long,
Detroit News,
3 Dec 2010
rotten:
If "Leaving" is a story of a broken marriage, what, exactly, went wrong?
– Michael O'Sullivan,
Washington Post,
17 Dec 2010
fresh:
As Suzanne's stair-stepping recklessness leads ever downward, from secret rendezvous to public humiliations to thievery and worse, "Leaving" trades sympathy for surprise.
– Joe Williams,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
17 Dec 2010
rotten:
The only reason to see "Leaving'' - and it's not a bad reason at all - is for the sight of Kristin Scott Thomas in a rare happy mood.
– Ty Burr,
Boston Globe,
13 Jan 2011
rotten:
If Leaving is a romantic parable, it is a dark and depressing one, emphasizing not the sensuality of attraction but rather the obsessive side of romantic behavior. This is mad love for sure, and that is not usually a pretty picture.