7/12 ForReel Score | 3/5 Stars

Gentle Monster is a great premise without a story to support it, to such an extent that you can feel its momentum screeching to a halt near the end of the second act, when Marie Kreutzer uses flashback sequences to state clear what was cleverly implied beforehand. Her film has admirable intentions, raises some interesting questions, and is a showcase for two marvelous performances, but it doesn’t supply much more than that.

The movie is serious business: not only does it involve a sensitive topic, it asks us to consider the possibility that loved ones of evil people can have a hard time allowing their love to diminish. We meet Lucy (Lea Seydoux), the mother of a happy family consisting of her workaholic husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) and an adorable child (Malo Blanchet). Tragedy strikes one day when investigators search their house and discover illegal material owned by Philip concerning sexual abuse of children. Lucy is distraught and assumes the worst: she eliminates all contact with Philip, moves out of the house with her child to live with her mother (Catherine Deneuve), and tries to reckon with the reality that she might have known and loved an evil person all this time.

Kreutzer treats these scenes with great sensitivity, and her depictions of legal and investigative proceedings demonstrate remarkable knowledge of the subject matter. Lucy receives different justifications of the crime, first about how it was all for research, then about the purpose of it, so much that the truth, for a long time, was completely obscured to her and to us. Our only source of guidance is the lead investigator Elsa (Jella Haase), who leads a completely different life than Lucy, from small things such as blasting music in her car to big things such as her complete lack of trust for other humans. “Why do you do this job?” Lucy asks. “It’s the only job that makes sense,” Elsa says.

Kreutzer is gifted at establishing character and unsettling us with scenes of unflinching honesty without coming off as exploitative, and hence deserves praise for it. But the film’s story, despite its immense credibility, lacks propulsion, so after a while scenes start to reiterate the same sentiments. Lucy’s occupation as an experimental musician seems like an excuse for Seydoux to demonstrate sadness by playing haunting music. I didn’t find that quite necessary—the movie, if anything, is enough of a downer. There is also a subplot involving Elsa’s father that feels it was put in arbitrarily, and suggests gender issues, which is a theme that belongs to a different story.

Gentle Monster has good intentions, and I have no doubt it will be helpful, informative, or reassuring to certain people with similar experiences. And yet I have to be honest about it: it is only a premise, and plays like it.

TIFF 2026 | Movie Review: "Gentle Monster" Is An Admirable Story Despite its Shortcomings