France's comic-neurotic idol Mathieu Amalric (Best Actor winner at the 2005 Cesar Awards for his role) anchors this lively tale of two very different people, linked by one very obvious fact (their lives are in shambles), and one not-so-apparent one (they once were lovers). Nora (Emmanuelle Devos) is thirty-five years old, a beloved director of an art gallery, mother of a beautiful 10-year-old boy, widowed from one husband, divorced from another, and about to embark on marriage number three, this time to a wealthy businessman. The ex-lover, Ismael (Amalric), is a middle-aged violinist, dodger of tax collectors, and quoter of literature who is about to be committed to a mental asylum. Nora's tale shifts tone when she discovers that her father is dying of cancer. Suddenly fearful of her own future, she seeks out the only man available to provide for her son: Ismael. Too bad Ismael is busy raiding the asylum's pharmacy with his drug-addled lawyer, courting the hospital's resident wrist-slasher and locking wits with its psychiatrist (Catherine Deneuve, radiant as usual). Director Desplechin (In the Company of Men, SFIFF 2004) balances his two star-crossed ex-lovers' tales with just the right blend of the sublime and the burlesque. Tragic and comic, mournful and exhilarating: like life itself, in other words.