AllMovie

Audrey Tautou stars in director Claude Miller's adaptation of François Mauriac's classic novel, which tells the tragic tale of Thérèse Larroque (Tautou), a housewife from 1920s provincial France locked in a loveless arranged marriage to the wealthy, landowning Bernard Desqueyroux (Gilles Lellouche) during an era when marriages were used to merge land parcels and build powerful families. Thérèse's dormant passions are later reawakened when her best friend (and her husband's younger sister) Anne (Anaïs Demoustier) enters into a romance with a dashing Portuguese suitor. Inspired by Anne's blatant disregard for tradition in favor of true love, the free spirited Thérèse makes one last, desperate attempt to reclaim her independence.