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      Special Treatment

      Released Aug 26, 2011 1h 35m Comedy Drama List
      39% 18 Reviews Tomatometer 33% 100+ Ratings Audience Score A disaffected call girl named Alice (Isabelle Huppert) and her psychiatrist Xavier (Bouli Lanners) lead similar lives. They both have clients, charge for sessions, and take on roles that serve the needs, psychological or otherwise, of those they serve. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Undoubtedly, Isabelle Huppert in cosplay caught my eyes first. The film is so loose (the later the more) plus humdrum however. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Dark and slowly-paced, this film may not be for everyone. However, if human psychology and sexuality are of interest, this may satisfy. The fate of an aging prostitute and Psychoanalyst intersect as both have grown weary of their professions and respective personal lives. The beauty of this film is not in the correlation of their two jobs but in the quiet performances by the two actors. Huppert is a brilliant actress. She has always been attracted to roles filled with transgressive turns, and that is sometimes tiring. However, in this film she taps into her gift for tapping into stark realism which is both tragic and hopeful. Half the joy of this film is pleasure of watching an uncompromising actress and trying to figure out what is running through the mind of the character. The other half of the enjoyment is the manner in which Labrune presents the characters via glimpses versus any lengthy exposition or dialog. This is no cinematic masterwork, but it is a finely tuned character study. I love great performances and Huppert does not disappoint. As a quick note to potential viewers: The US marketing for this movie is misleading. I did not find this to be an erotic film. It is a film about sexuality, but is far more "neurotic" than "erotic." Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member A thoughtful character study of an aging, high-class prostitute and her reluctant client, a therapist having some marital difficulty. Isabelle Huppert and Bouli Lanners play the two damaged souls who help each other without making any conscious effort to do so. This is a quiet film, without much action and very little skin showing for such a dark subject. The dialog is subdued, but powerful and Ms Huppert is marvelous in her role. The camera work was exquisite, using soft focus and playing with depth of field to keep the viewer engaged at the most pivotal moments. This one grew on me as it progressed. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I am glad I took a friends advice and waited for DVD on this one. I think in a cinema for an hour and a half, this would have been a snore. Quite an achievement for a movie about a hooker played by Isabelle Huppert! This is more like a small slice of her daily life than any big story or plot happening. It just ambles along. There's some of her work with clients (I found the costumes more interesting than anything going on here. Isabelle is still beautiful and compelling onscreen), and the implication that her friend is something more, but it never really goes there either. The main story is that she is tired of hooking and wants to quit. Whether she does or not is up in the air, but I got the impression she did. It's not horrible, but there is really not much of anything going on in this movie. A bit disappointing. Strictly for fans of Isabelle! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member scenario assez space rendu pas terrible malgre les bonnes interpretations d'huppert et bouli lanners Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review walter m In "Special Treatment," Xavier(Bouli Lanners), a psychoanalyst, and Alice(Isabelle Huppert), a prostitute, walk into a medical supplies store. Xavier is enjoying the material rewards from his practice. Maybe a little too much for his wife Helene(Valerie Dreville) as she kicks him out of their apartment, not liking his attitude one bit. Alice has her eye on an antique chandelier while her friend and colleague, Juliette(Sabila Moussadek), is troubled by the kind of clients her friend brings in. Alice thinks she might be right as she is considering professional treatment, not just retail therapy. "Special Treatment" wastes a potentially provocative set up and only succeeds as well it does mostly by the talent and fearlessness of Isabelle Huppert. A lot of that comes down to less a failure of nerve than sheer indecision by the filmmakers. At first, it seems the movie might be a veiled critique of psychoanalysis by comparing it to prostitution by saying that all everybody needs is a good lay.(Or one could argue if one does something solely for money, then that makes you a prostitute.) But the movie sadly never follows through on that or a fascinating structure that eventually asserts itself before abandoning that to chase down another subplot to explore. In the end, it is about nothing more interesting than a pair of mid-life crises. I guess what comes around goes around. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Special Treatment

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      Critics Reviews

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      Ignatiy Vishnevetsky Chicago Reader Though the parallels drawn between therapy and prostitution grow tiresome, the duo's interaction is peppered with inspired comedic moments. Oct 13, 2011 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times At the end, there is no great revelation, but Huppert has succeeded once again in making us wonder what's going on in there. Rated: 3/4 Oct 6, 2011 Full Review Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times Complex, compassionate and endlessly illuminating... Rated: 4/5 Sep 15, 2011 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com The film ultimately proves to be quite the disappointment. Rated: 2.5/4.0 Sep 24, 2020 Full Review Brent Simon Shockya.com Isabelle Huppert has a sly technique and endlessly fascinating face, but this initially intriguing drama abandons darker overtones for rather wan interpersonal revelations. Rated: C- Sep 13, 2011 Full Review Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice A dramatically inert and poorly acted French film. Rated: 1/5 Aug 29, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A disaffected call girl named Alice (Isabelle Huppert) and her psychiatrist Xavier (Bouli Lanners) lead similar lives. They both have clients, charge for sessions, and take on roles that serve the needs, psychological or otherwise, of those they serve.
      Director
      Jeanne Labrune
      Producer
      Serge Zeitoun
      Screenwriter
      Richard Debuisne, Jeanne Labrune
      Distributor
      First Run
      Production Co
      Liaison Cinématographique, Artémis Productions, Samsa Film
      Genre
      Comedy, Drama
      Original Language
      French (France)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Aug 26, 2011, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Feb 5, 2015
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $8.9K
      Runtime
      1h 35m