REVIEW: Jodie Foster Stalks a Killer in Satisfying Slow Burn ‘A Private Life’

Did you know that Jodie Foster speaks French? Much of the discussion surrounding her role in Rebecca Zlotowski’s new mystery thriller, A Private Life, suggests many will find it just as much of a surprise as the film’s twists and turns. The actress learned the language while at the Lycée Français de Los Angeles prep school, has been appearing in French films since age 15 in Éric Le Hung’s Moi, Fleur Bleue, and has contributed to French dubs of many of her English roles. So while this is her first lead role in a French film, the number of times I’ve seen this referred to as her first French performance feels in need of more clarification.

A Private Life, written by Zlotowski alongside Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, stars Foster as psychiatrist Lilian Steiner. Steiner is, quite frankly, a mess. She can’t stop making excuses to see her ex-husband, Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), yet she is perpetually avoiding their son (Vincent Lacoste) and newborn grandson. Many of her patients appear to despise her, clearly aware that she’s not paying full attention to their sessions.

But now her patient Paula (Virginie Efira) is dead, having overdosed on medication that Steiner illegally prescribed her. It was a suicide. Or was it? Paula’s daughter, Valérie (Luana Bajrami), thinks Paula may have been trying to send Steiner a message before she died. Steiner quickly focuses her suspicion on Paula’s husband, Simon (Mathieu Amalric), whose public efforts to blame Steiner for the death risk her professional reputation.

A Private Life is driven by Jodie Foster, while the mystery takes the backseat.

An inherited fortune and a shady hypnotherapist (Sophie Guillemin) provide some more twists and turns along the way, and Zlotowski has Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” playing semi-frequently just to help audiences get in the suspicious spirit. But the mystery itself takes a backseat to Foster’s performance.

A Private Life never tries to fully exonerate Steiner for her actions, instead making the mystery of just how accountable she is in her patient’s death. Is there an actual psycho killer who played Steiner as a pawn? Or did her own indifference hand a loaded weapon to a suicidal woman?

The complexity isn’t lost in Foster’s performance, who seems just as confident carrying a film in French as she does in her native tongue. Her character guides audiences into the depths of despair, focusing not just on how Steiner is directly impacted by pursuing a murderer but also on how that obsession quickly consumes her personal and professional life. It quickly becomes apparent that Steiner’s quest for the truth isn’t going to stop, even if it comes at the cost of her practice and family. In fact, it’s an inevitability.

The chemistry between Foster and Auteuil fuels their interactions.

Things get even more captivating when Foster begins to share the spotlight with Auteuil. The seemingly mild-mannered optometrist, Gabriel, immediately becomes a captivating partner because he is very obviously aware of how unhealthy his ex-wife’s relationship with this mystery is, yet only nurtures her obsession.

Is a chance at rekindling their romance worth destroying their relationship with their son? Is another night together worth risking Steiner’s life? Auteuil plays these motivations extremely close to the chest, never giving a clear indication as to whether Gabriel has something more sinister in mind or if he just knows Steiner well enough to know that the only way through is forward.

The chemistry between the duo is electric, which makes it easy to overlook just how barebones the latter half of the film is. At some point, Zlotowski seems content to let the script and story take a backseat and allow A Private Life rest on the strength of its stars.

While the performances are undeniably strong, the script struggles to meet their caliber.

If you’re going to coast on the strength of your leads, this is absolutely the duo to do it with. But a script that actually deserved these good of performances instead of just being lucky enough to have them could have easily made this film the frontrunner of France’s 2025 Oscar submissions instead of just being shortlisted.

The final reveal itself is extremely French and does a meaningful job at juggling the various philosophical points the film spent the previous eighty minutes raising. Still, it is an undeniable letdown when compared to everything Foster and Auteuil did to get audiences down that road. Such spectacular performances deserve an equally spectacular ending, but A Private Life settles on one that’s largely just… fine. And maybe that’s okay.

Fine is certainly preferable to bombastic, which Zlotowski could have easily landed on had she leaned slightly too far in the other direction. But it’s hard not to be disappointed that someone as competent as Jodie Foster couldn’t be afforded a little more room to breathe. At the very least, there’s a satisfying enough denouement to allow the actress to wrap things up. And it’s nice to see that Foster, now a full 54 years into her career, is still full of surprises.

A Private Life is available now in select theaters and nationwide on January 30th, 2026.