Let's be realistic.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Blistering performances.

Bruno Nuytten directed Isabelle Adjani in "Camille Claudel ",his only claim to fame as a director :critics were divided on this effort ."Passionnément" is the director's third work ;in spite of a good cast (Gérard Lanvin,Charlotte Gainsbourg and a young Berenice Bejo (later,Jean Dujardin's co-star in " L'Artiste"), the movie is stiff, cold and ,in spite of its title ,not passionate at all .A long flashback , the screenplay is not well-constructed and ,mainly in the first third ,it's hard to catch up with the story ;the characters are underwritten ,both mothers -we barely perceive that Bernard's is a bourgeois one and Alice's is a working-class woman- and the in-laws' motives are so obscure the story could easily do without them;even the ending does not make much sense.You can enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Mediterranean Porquerolles island :so could the actors,thus combining business with pleasure.