Anaïs in Love is as magnetic as its protagonist. From the start, Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is messy, flitting from one stressful situation to the next. Except she does it with admirable ease, whether explaining to her landlord why she’s behind on her rent or arriving too late to a date with her boyfriend. By the time she awkwardly encounters the much older man she’ll embark on an affair with, Anaïs seems to be treading dangerously close to manic pixie dream girl territory. But filmmaker Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet never lets her get there. Instead, Bourgeois-Tacquet offers a much more charming character whose nuance becomes more apparent when she falls in love with Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), whose husband is the aforementioned man. Again, she’s messy, but the film embraces that in a way that honors the character, giving her room to grow autonomously and with an authenticity viewers won’t be able to shake. 98 min.
