The lively French romantic comedy Anaïs in Love introduces a character who is as magnetic as she is infuriating in a film that captures the essence of the genre. The romantic comedy has seen a resurgence as of late thanks, in part, to streamers' willingness to produce them in droves regardless of quality. Fortunately, Anaïs in Love rises above to become almost a companion piece to one of the best movies of 2021, The Worst Person in the World. Filled with passion and a performance from Anaïs Demoustier that is equal parts energetic and blisteringly self-aware, Anaïs in Love is hilarious and romantic even if its resolution ultimately falters.
Anaïs is neurotic, impulsive, perpetually late, and always running, but it's because of this that it seems like everyone else is merely trying to catch up with her. Attempting to finish a thesis on 17th-century descriptions of passion that's about as late as her last few months of rent, Anaïs flings herself from moment to moment with disheveled grace. When she meets Daniel (Denis Podalydès), an older man with whom she has an affair, she eventually finds herself more infatuated with his writer wife Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). While coping with the resurgence of her mother's illness, Anaïs finds herself deeply attracted to Emilie and begins openly pursuing her despite her former lover's misgivings.
Anaïs overshares, an obvious product of a generation that found themselves caught at the rise of the internet age. At one point, while showing tourists around her apartment that she is letting them rent, she explains her romantic life to them in French even though they don't speak a word of her native language. This is Anaïs in a nutshell and it's hard for a viewer to not be drawn into her freewheeling charm. It helps that Demoustier plays the title character with a kinetic buoyancy, one that bounces between the overcorrecting self-confidence of someone still trying to shake off their late 20s and a childlike naïveté that's more of a defense mechanism rather than representative of underlying insecurity.
While an extended amount of time is spent just introducing audiences to Anaïs, the film truly finds its heart when she becomes infatuated with Emilie. Demoustier and Tedeschi's chemistry carries the back half of the movie as they convene on a writer's symposium that is being led by Emilie. It's never quite clear why Anaïs is attracted to Emilie, but it really doesn't matter. Their relationship is fueled by a passion that Anaïs has been missing in her own life. Anaïs in Love's romantic sensibilities aren't the only thing that guides the film, though.
Anaïs in Love also finds moments to be brilliantly funny. One particular scene sees Anaïs go to her brother Balthazaar's apartment where he (Xavier Guelfi) has accidentally given his partner's lemur too much Xanax and Anaïs has an appropriately hilarious reaction. All of this and more serves to slyly reveal Anaïs to the audience, but it is one conversation with Emilie about a crush the latter had on her writing teacher when she was 14 years old that really lets viewers see Anaïs. With a slight bow of the head, it's clear Anaïs sees herself in this 14-year-old version of Emilie and she is both embarrassed and awestruck by this revelation.
These revelations don't amount to much because Anaïs doesn't necessarily experience much growth during the film. At one point, she tells Daniel, "I like people who know what they want," a statement that feels bitterly ironic coming from her. It's clear that she doesn't know what she wants until she meets Emilie, but this is one of the things that makes her so fascinating as a character. Demoustier's performance and the ways in which Anaïs feels lived in make up for the first half of the film's seeming lack of direction and its ambiguous and somewhat fantastical ending.
Anaïs in Love leans into genre conventions of the romantic comedy wholeheartedly, allowing for a lighter experience that is warm as the French sun that illuminates many of the scenes. While the film is as airy as its protagonist, Anaïs in Love never finds time to ground the audience or Anaïs, nor does it live up to the promise of a few plot threads that are left dangling. It's clear, though, that Anaïs in Love is not afraid to embrace the mess — of life, of love, of being unsure in a world where indecisiveness is driven by the sheer number of choices being presented. These are all minor concerns in a film as spirited as this, and, like its protagonist, Anaïs in Love overcomes these obstacles through sheer force of will.
Anaïs in Love is currently playing in theaters and will be available on-demand on Friday, May 6. The film is 98 minutes long and is unrated.
