

Featured Review
Sundance 2025 – Two Women ★★★
Released: TBC (Sundance 2025)
Director: Chloé Robichaud
Starring: Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Laurence Le Boeuf, Félix Moati, Mani Soleymanlou
Two Women gazing wistfully outside their Montréal suburban windows in a parallel scene forms the backdrop to this riveting tale of female desire and friendship. The film is as comedic as it is heartfelt with captivating performances from the eponymous ‘two women’ – the relatable Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman) and Violette (Laurence Le Boeuf), who strive to find joy outside of the mundane elements within their daily lives as housewives. Two Women’s emphasis is firmly placed on life’s meaning of happiness within the female gaze from director Chloé Robichaud. There are explicit references to sexuality from the outset as Violette discusses intimate noises that she hears between the paper thin walls shared with neighbour Florence. All of which illustrates that Two Women uses a blunt tool to provoke discussion.
Effectively, Two Women aims to provide a sense of empowerment for neglected women whose responsibilities overshadowed their own needs. Robichaud makes that persistent point about the necessity to tap into female desire to escape melancholy. Cleverly, Robichaud’s directorial vision makes those evident connections between the state of one’s mental health being connected to our sexual health but avoids a didactic outlook, preferring to allow the audience to make up its own mind about the state of affairs, literally!
Refreshingly, Florence, in a moment of lucidity, abandons her previous body complexes and encourages Violette to do the same, setting up the film’s central premise. On the face of it, Violette is seemingly more naive and embraces the cutesy blonde trope compared to Florence’s practical approach thus following the formulaic blonde versus brunette routine. Clearly Robichaud, despite rehashing some of these hackneyed tropes, wishes audiences to be immersed in that female gaze with a reversal of fortune pitting the men, that Florence and Violette encounter, as the objects of their desire. Whilst this works for the most part, as the audience tracks their gaze with a sensuality that is both comedic and exciting, there are moments where this over-the-top sexuality seems forced. This leads to the question of the overall effect that Robichaud is aiming for within Two Women as its sexual comedic aspects are confusingly straddled within sensitive subjects. However, both Gonthier-Hyndman and Le Boeuf rise to the occasion working well together presenting a good chemistry with impeccable comedic flair.
Thus, Two Women also provides that permission to audiences to view women’s body and female sexuality from a different perspective. Here, it’s the women attempting to subvert stereotypes and expectations beyond being an invisible woman as Violette and Florence discuss concepts of monogamy and patriarchal structures. Florence’s character embodies a sexual energy that is typically the preserve of leading males in films as she confidently begins to walk around undressed in comical moments.
As a result, some of the film’s profound revelations, such as post partum depression, seem lost. Violette, is on maternity leave and often isolated when her partner travels for work. Two Women doesn’t go far enough to analyse the challenging shift in dynamics for first time parents. Still, Robichaud should be applauded for her gentle but unwavering confidence exploring the beauty of the female body within motherhood. The camera rests its non-exploitative lens on scenes where Violette prepares to breastfeed. These are rare on-screen moments that will hopefully revolutionise the cinematic approach to filming motherhood with admiration and sensitivity.
Yet, despite Two Women’s progressiveness and willingness to engage in forthright discourse concerning these women’s sex drive, libido, depression and the patriarchy, there is something frightfully outdated about the film. Florence and Violette’s characters feel as though they are on the cusp of the 1970’s sexual revolution in their analysis of conjugal domesticity and extra-marital relationships rather than being modern women from the present day. This might be a hangover from the source material as degrees of 1970’s sexism creep in. Unfortunately, as the emotional impact in Two Women remains superficial for most of the film’s runtime the gravitas behind some of Robichaud’s directional choices are also lost in the ether. Ultimately, the effect is that Florence and Violette’s roles are reduced to caricatures during key moments without Robichaud’s ongoing commitment to fully explore the neglect with its ensuing mental and physical tolls.
Undeniably, the overall experience may leave audiences cold given that there are static shots and the detached, voyeuristic view behind closed doors with a haphazard focus on the emotions. This stagey feel could be due to the fact the original source material is indeed a play called Home Deliveries by Catherine Léger (who is Two Women’s screenwriter), which is in turn based on the 1970 film Two Women in Gold by Claude Fourni. But, there was an opportunity for this tone to have shifted in this remake, which was unfortunately missed.
However, Two Women is unabashedly vocal in its protest against fulfilling societal expectations as a woman. Indeed, this is the ultimate message to take away from this film which simultaneously overstuffs itself with throwaway socio-political discussions whilst adopting a farcical approach. Light-hearted yet profound in equal measures, Two Women is an enjoyable watch that will re-open the discourse concerning women’s control over their own happiness, body confidence and understanding their own needs, which can only be a good thing.
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