Reuniting with the writer-director of I've Loved You So Long, Kristin Scott Thomas plays the increasingly embattled wife of an apparently reliable neurosurgeon (Daniel Auteuil) caught in the throes of a late-life crisis triggered by unexpected tokens of stalkery affection. A chance encounter with Lou (Leila Bekhti), who thanks Paul for his kindness when operating on her years ago (he insists that she is mistaken), plays prelude to a volley of red roses delivered daily to the doctor's home and office, threatening the tranquillity of his apparently happy marriage. As Paul's unease turns to rage, and suspicion to paranoia, his life unravels, causing cracks in his relationships through which bleed long-buried truths.

With its chilly visual sheen and sharp bourgeois satire, this handsomely mounted and consistently well-played yarn offers disposable pleasures and rewarding intrigue. It all goes somewhat pear-shaped in the penultimate movement as the creeping sense of threat is finally (and somewhat foolishly) realised, but there's still a sting in the tail to which Scott Thomas builds with aplomb. The use of music as a talismanic narrative device is particularly well played, and viewers are advised to stay seated through the closing song credits.