Claire Denis’ film has hold of an interesting but under-examined subject: the passions of a middle-aged woman. It’s an oblique and rarefied outing, part character study, part social comedy, and dialogue whose self-absorption can sound almost like a parody of French cinema … yet it has brio and spikiness and a sensational lead performance from Juliette Binoche as a woman blown every which way by the unpredictable gusts of romance.