Isabelle Huppert turned the revenge thriller Elle on its head, now she tackles infidelity

REVIEW: The transformation in Isabelle Huppert’s character in Things to Come is compelling and ultimately profound.

THINGS TO COME

Three and a half stars

Director Mia Hansen-Love

Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka

Rating M

Running time 102 minutes

Verdict Eat, Pray, Love — for grown-ups

NATHALIE Chazeaux (Isabelle Huppert) is a well-heeled French intellectual.

So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the equanimity with which she accepts the news of her husband’s infidelity and impending departure.

The high school philosophy teacher isn’t above the odd, well-placed dig at her professorial ex Heinz (André Marcon), who has predictably taken up with a younger model.

But for the most part, she behaves like a grown up (it’s a rare and shining example of exactly how one ought to behave in such a nightmare situation).

Isabelle Huppert’s Nathalie does not take her husband’s infidelity lying down for long.

In contrast to her Hollywood counterparts, Nathalie doesn’t plot revenge (First Wives Club 1996), or seek spiritual solace at ashram in India (Eat, Pray, Love 2010).

Instead, she relies on ordinary, everyday momentum to keep her from going under.

In between answering crisis calls from her needy, ailing mother (Edith Scob), and taking care of her mum’s overweight cat, Nathalie works hard to maintain a connection with her grown-up children and facilitate intelligent, philosophical debates with her spongelike students.

She has a special connection with Fabien (Roman Kolinka), a former protege with a radical bent.

So as part of her bid to reimagine herself, she visits the rural commune he has set up with a bunch of fellow anarchists.

The relationship between Isabelle Huppert’s Nathalie and a former protege Fabien (Roman Kolinka) gradually sees her profound transformation.

In this social environment, however, she clearly represents a different generation. And Fabien challenges her on what he perceives as her conservatism.

Part of Things to Come’s appeal is director Mia Hansen-Love’s faith in intellectual rigour, which is not to say emotions aren’t bubbling away under the surface — clearly they are.

But instead of epiphanies, Nathalie’s transformation — if indeed one can call it that — is made up of small, everyday steps taken with as much honesty and courage as she can muster.

The change is subtle but in the hands of an actor as talented as Huppert it’s compelling — and ultimately profound.

Isabelle Huppert, who was marvellous in Elle, is equally so in Things to Come.

Things To Come is now showing (opens Thursday, April 27)

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