‘Intimate Strangers’ not bad, but should be good

It’s been a while since a French film has come along that is truly worth hating. I’d love to be able to say “Intimate Strangers” is that film.

No such luck. “Intimate Strangers” isn’t detestable. It’s just not very good.

It should be – good, that is. With Sandrine Bonnaire to look at for much of the film’s 100-plus-minute running time, “Intimate Strangers” does have its qualities.

Unfortunately, the rest of the time we’re stuck with Fabrice Luchini.

Luchini plays William, a pedestrian Parisian accountant – if that isn’t redundant – who stumbles onto the best thing that ever happened to him when Anna (Bonnaire) walks into his office, mistaking him for a psychiatrist.

And before you can say “tax audit,” she’s spilling her guts. Seems she’s in an unhappy marriage, the sex isn’t good and she doesn’t know what to do. He, at first confused but then intrigued, allows her to prattle on.

Director Patrice Leconte specializes in films about characters who have unexpressed, sometimes desperate, needs. In the intriguing “The Man on the Train,” two men discover, too late, that each is living the other’s dream life. In the less successful “The Widow of St. Pierre,” a French army officer sacrifices his career, and maybe more, not just for the woman he loves but for the larger ideal of honor.

Here, we have a more optimistic situation: Two characters find in each other the strength to change. The question is, will they?

Anna, who quickly discovers that William isn’t what she thought he was (and just as quickly forgives him), gets what she needs to seek out the life she wants. And William? He is left with two choices: continue to live the mundane existence that he inherited from his father or find his own way.

If Luchini were able to make William a more sympathetic character, it might be easier to care about him. As it is, William is … well, boring isn’t too strong a description, even if annoying and emotionally constipated might be. Either way, Leconte’s attempt to push his film toward an eventual happy ending seems forced.

Which is a surprise. That’s the least French aspect of the whole project.