AllMovie

French filmmaker Patrice Leconte (Felix and Lola, The Suicide Shop) makes his English-language debut with this period romance adapted from Stefan Zweig's Journey into the Past, and centering on the affair between a handsome male secretary and the wife of a wealthy industrialist. Frederic Zeitz (Richard Madden) is a man whose strong work ethic is only exceeded by his formidable intelligence, which makes him the ideal candidate to work as an administrative assistant for prominent steel-factory owner Karl Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman). Before long, sparks are flying between Frederic and Hoffmeister's younger wife Lotte (Rebecca Hall), and the young secretary is invited to move in with his boss' family while tutoring his employer's young son Otto (Toby Murray). Meanwhile, passions between the young pair begin burning out of control, leaving both to ponder an uncertain future as the powers of fate begin to push them apart.