The Nature of Love review – opposites attract in sizzling French-Canadian romcom

Cabin fever… Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal in The Nature of Love. Photograph: Immina Films/Fred Gervais

With this sparky, sexy French-language Canadian romcom, Québéc director Monia Chokri takes one of the hoariest of romantic cliches – that opposites attract – and playfully explores the messy realities of a mismatched love affair. Philosophy lecturer Sophia (Magalie Lépine Blondeau) moves in affluent intellectual circles in Montreal and enjoys a mentally stimulating if passionless marriage with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). Then she meets Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the burly, blue-collar contractor hired to renovate her dilapidated cabin retreat. The attraction between them is potent and overwhelming, but is it enough to justify Sophia walking out of her marriage and starting a new life with Sylvain?

Chokri appropriates the slightly cheesy visual language of a TV romantic comedy, with exaggerated zooms and corny montages. But The Nature of Love is rather more sophisticated than the filming techniques suggest: it’s a comedy, certainly, but one that leans into the discomfort of the polar differences between the couple. Is it possible to love someone but also judge them on their grammar and cultural references?

Watch a trailer for The Nature of Love.

• In UK and Irish cinemas