The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This film is a hidden gem for the lovers of various French traditions: epistolary literature of 17th and 18th century, the breeze of French philosophy of love, friendship and education,, view at old traditional environment of Parisian schools mixed with contemporary teaching styles, love intrigues and tragic resolutions, etc. Without knowing its French context, its difficult to grasp the charm of this movie. Love relations are mostly temporary, no matter how intense they were. Still, in all that mess, from time to time, someone is always ready to die or to kill for it. That is the substance of French literature, art, philosophy, and its always over and over joy to observe it, in cinematic works like this. Especially with two eye-candies such as Lea Seydoux and Luis Garrel, who at the same time, happen to be good actors. Two songs played in French fit very well the movie, the other songs sung in English were actually total misfit. French film for the French culture lovers. Recommended for calm rainy afternoons.

..yea.. she's a real winner... ..she teases and torments her 'friend' to his ultimate demise.. ..and with her other love interest, she feels very strongly about him, but must leave and go far, far away... for he is just too beautiful, and although he proclaims he loves her, in the end she knows he will ultimately leave her for another.. ..(and who decided to cast him in that role.. at times he looks and acts more like a student than they do).. ..all that, and a bunch of confusing side story lines, adding nothing at all to the main story.. ..the French have mastered these kinds of productions.. too bad in this one the efforts of a good number of talented young actors went to waste

I was excited to see the film as I found the premise to be quite intriguing, however the film just didn't do it for me. Maybe something got lost in translation? Although I usually do not have this problem. Or maybe it's because the quality I watched it in wasn't the best? Regardless, I did enjoy the visuals. I liked the cold and grey colours added to the picture, which fit the mood of the film quite nicely. The characters, their hair; the clothing all added to this melancholic mood and it was honestly so aesthetically pleasing to watch. It had this worn out vibe; like a picture from older pictures, which I adored. The camera work was good. Not amazing, but good. Some shots didn't quite make sense, but I guess it can be "part of the art". There was also some shaking which did not really make sense with the narrative, but regardless, I enjoyed the visuals.Alas, I could not really say the same for the story. I am aware it was based on a classic, hence the "tragedy" and dramatisation. The issue? I wasn't convinced. Problematic character number 1: Nemours. A character who exaggerates his emotions and leaves the two people he was screwing (emotionally and physically) for a girl he just laid eyes on. Love at first sight. Bullshit. Junie's feelings I do believe, but she also doesn't exaggerate them (and she's a teenager). She knows she is only attracted to Nemours, however, Nemours, a grown man sprouts out all these fancy words about how he was in love with her and they feel so careless coming out of his mouth as he was not convincing at all. Maybe there was some spark the character missed, or something visually missing. Another problematic character: Otto. He was a delight, but, his voice was too weak, drowned out by all the other plots happening on screen, so much so, that the ultimate peak of the story -- his suicide -- left no impact on me.I did enjoy the ending, which I found pleasant and fitting, and a decision which was very mature of Junie.In conclusion: Aesthetically pleasing -- yes. Was the story convincing? No.

I know as an older American it may be I simply don't get at French high schoolers act these days. But even the adults in this film seem foolish. The characters are sketchily drawn, and the plot is thin with illogical twists and stretches that test your patience.The one redeeming feature is Léa Seydoux. Her character may be unfathomable as the rest, but at least it's understandable why everyone keeps on falling in love with her. She's also a rather amazing actor; hard to tell it here but her performance in Blue Is the Warmest Color was terrific, and not because we get to see her naked a lot.One other thing that bothered me about this film was that almost all the actors were so good-looking. I'm sure French high schools have a certain percentage of uglies as everywhere else.