Grade: B+

Verdict: A small-scale examination of heartbreak, done as only the French can.

Details: Starring Nathalie Baye and Sergi Lopez. Directed by Frederic Fonteyne. Rated R for sex and nudity. Subtitles. One hour, 20 minutes.

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Review: Nobody does it like the French, be it romance, food or film festivals.

"An Affair of Love" is an extremely French wisp of a picture with a lingering whiff of needless tragedy. The protagonists, known only as Her (Nathalie Baye) and Him (Sergi Lopez), connect through an ad she's placed in a sex magazine describing a certain sexual fantasy. They meet at a cafe and almost immediately repair to a nearby hotel where, to their mutual satisfaction, they do it.

What "it" is is never revealed. Director Frederic Fonteyne discreetly closes the door every time the pair walk down the bordello-red corridors of their hotel to Room 118. The sole time we're allowed inside - for an extended oh-so-French scene that includes a mid-coital discussion of former lovers - is when they decide to try something really kinky, i.e., make love normally. The problem - revealed in the movie's opening scenes, so there's nothing being spoiled here - is that these two can handle sex but panic when romance rears its ugly head.

We're introduced to each character separately, being quizzed by an off-screen presence (shrink? journalist? filmmaker?) who wants to know why the affair ended. What we learn is that they can leap into bed, but making that leap of faith - to take the risk of true intimacy - is too scary. Both insist that they couldn't make it as a couple and that if they'd guessed wrong, as one shrugs, "Something would've happened. Something would've told us we were wrong."

In other words, they turn a tragic lack of trust - in themselves, in each other - into an act of fate.

Baye, who's lit up the screen in such classics as "Day for Night" and "The Return of Martin Guerre," projects the radiance of a still beautiful middle-aged woman (the character is in her mid-40s; Baye is actually in her early 50s) who's still open sexually but troubled by the notion of falling in love. Lopez, who's slightly younger, has eyes that give off a Kevin Kline crinkle when he smiles. There's a boundless irony in this self-proclaimed "optimist's" statement that if she got to know him she'd probably end up hating him.

The sappy title suggests a Gallic chick flick, but remember that it was called "A Pornographic Affair" in France. It's a movie about the risks we can take and the ones we can't. One that reminds us - in a rueful, tender, what-if way - that what we do for love is as complex as anything on this planet and even a so-called fling can carry all the romantic weight in the world.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service

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