Gentle Monster Review: Seydoux Shines in Thorny Drama

Léa Seydoux gives a powerhouse performance in Gentle Monster, a thorny drama about a woman forced to confront something unimaginable about her husband.

That horrifying crime and its personal impact on Kreutzer have fuelled her new film, a drama centred around the fallout of realising someone you thought you knew has done something unimaginable.

Gentle Monster starts with Lucy (Léa Seydoux, also at LFF with The Unknown) at her piano. She is an experimental musician, known for chopping up and deconstructing pop songs written by men like Charles and Eddie’s ‘Would I Lie To You?’ She lives in Munich with her family, documentarian husband Philip (Laurence Rupp, of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) and young son Johnny (Malo Blanchet). When Philip has a breakdown, the family moves to the countryside at a major financial cost. However, their new, perfectly idyllic life is about to be irreparably shattered.

One day, Munich CID arrives with a search warrant. It is initially unclear why, but Philip’s worried looks are immediately telling. Soon his hard drives are seized, and he agrees to be taken in for questioning. As Lucy discovers, he has been arrested for storing and sharing child pornography on online forums (the film’s title refers to Philip’s username). Investigating is Elsa (Jella Haase), a cold, stoic officer. Outside of work, she is also taking care of her ailing father (Sylvester Groth, of Dark), who is himself accused of inappropriate behaviour. As Elsa’s personal frustrations mount, Lucy moves back in with her mother (Catherine Devenue, of Belle de Jour) and starts to wonder if Johnny has been affected.

Make no mistake; Gentle Monster will be a tough watch for some audiences. Its heavy subject matter consumes everything, and recontextualises what we witness. Flashbacks to loving family moments shot by Philip (on his phone or his 8mm camera) have taken on a disconcerting tone. Moreover, Kreutzer employs a stark, sparse style with long silences, wide shots and sharp editing from Ulrike Kofler. It is clear she wants something natural and direct here to ground us within this story, and the emotions provoked.

Luckily, she finds it in Seydoux and the powerhouse performance the French actress gives. The gravity of this situation hits Lucy immediately, and Seydoux exhibits a mix of isolation, revulsion, rage and distress. Soon, it is as if Lucy is fracturing at the seams, torn between what to believe and what to feel. What Philip is accused of has shaken her, but she still loves him. As she attests to her mother, “here is no off button as far as I know.” Everything Philip has done does not square with the man she fell in love with. Can we ever truly know those we love?

What is clear is that Seydoux is a great eye actor. Every wide-ranging emotion that Lucy has is registered in her eyes, whether they are welling or searing or joyous, as captured by DP Judith Kaufmann’s use of close-ups. In the end, Seydoux manages to express the sense of powerlessness intrinsic to the film and to Lucy. Her turn here is wholly incredible.

There are some quibbles. The sober style Kreutzer employs has its limits, with some lull periods. There is an unnecessarily extended flashback in the middle, which is perhaps meant to show the warning signs that were ignored but doesn’t reveal anything concretely. Also, music is a major part of Lucy’s life, both professionally and personally (see Johnny singing Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ early on). Yet it doesn’t feature a great deal here, or at least, the music from Camille (Corsage, Emilia Perez) isn’t emphasised. That being said, Gentle Monster is still a film that is engaging because of how thorny it gets with the material being covered, the themes of deception and violated trust, and the complex actions taken by characters.

At one point, a conversation between Lucy and Philip at their now-abandoned country home sees him disclose a major revelation about his motive (which doesn’t even turn out to be true). He then immediately drives away, leaving Lucy alone at the house she doesn’t even want. She has to deal with the aftermath of her situation by herself, as does Elsa with her father’s behaviour. It presents Gentle Monster as a film about women trapped by the actions of men, their loved ones, the excuses they make and the difficulties of moving forward. And even when Kreutzer’s presentation creates a weird disconnect at times, Seydoux’s fascinating performance makes it work.

Gentle Monster will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 10, 2026.