Le Divorce

Le Divorce is an absorbing family drama, beautifully produced and filmed on location in contemporary Paris. The story revolves around two American sisters, played by Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. As the film opens, Watts' character, Roxy, is passionately in love with her French husband and living an idyllic life in Paris. When Roxy's perfect life is upended by her husband's sudden announcement that he is leaving her for another woman, Isabel, played by Hudson, arrives from across the Atlantic to support her sister. Roxy is pregnant and does not want to leave France, so free-spirited Isabel decides to stay, finding work and becoming involved romantically with a sophisticated older man who also happens to be one of Roxy's in-laws. There is an subsidiary plot regarding a valuable painting in Roxy's flat which, due to the divorce, has instigated a harrowing legal dispute regarding its ownership under French law. The City of Paris provides a spectacular and glamorous backdrop as we watch the travails of Roxy, reluctantly disentangling herself from her doomed marriage, and the emotional acculturation of Isabel, whose self-confidence is tested as she slowly comes to understand the complicated French societal attitudes towards love and family relationships.