Nathalie (Emmanuelle Béart) is the name a Parisian prostitute assumes for a special mission or "private investigation." She is engaged for this unusual, and secretive task by a professional, upper middle class wife (Fanny Ardant) who fears her husband (Gérard Depardieu) is unfaithful to her. Nathalie has to seduce the clueless husband and regularly report all details of her relationship with him, including his most intimate sexual preferences in bed. Nathalie is stunning, charming and cunning. Can Nathalie and her reports to the mistrustful wife be trusted? Is the middle aged husband indeed unfaithful?

***

Awash in juicy, erotic melodrama but bearing one all-too-obvious plot twist, Anne Fontaine's psychological drama nonetheless provides a glimpse of two generations of French actresses at the top of their game. To think of Nathalie... as 8 Women divided by four would be somewhat misleading: Though it stars two of the duplicitous principals from Francois Ozon's campy 2002 mystery, the tone of this pairing is deathly serious, which makes the script's erotic element all the more believable, but makes its so-what conclusion even more apparent. Writer Philippe Blasband keeps his plot as simple as that of his breakthrough feature, the teasing, enigmatic Une Liason Pornographique, but the questions left unanswered in that film are mostly spelled out here; and although the dynamic between Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Béart is never less than fascinating, it does grow repetitive and increasingly less mysterious as Nathalie... progresses. It's rare that a film can generate carnal heat solely through its dialogue, and Ardant and Béart are more than up to the challenge of performing it -- but a breather or two of humor would've gone a long way in making Fontaine's film more believable.

Excerpt from Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide located HERE