TIFF Review: Benoît Jacquot's 'Three Hearts' Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni & Catherine Deneuve

The word "melodrama" tends to be used a pejorative these days, and that's because there are few movies or TV shows that execute the specifics of the genre well. When it works, an accomplished melodrama allows the audience to fully invest in the emotional lives of its characters, even if the plot machinations are manipulative or don't hold up under close scrutiny. It's a genre powered by performance and atmosphere, and it requires committed work by the actors, an assured hand on tone by the director and a script that can allow suspension of disbelief to stretch but not break. And while it's not perfect, and though at times you can see rigging of the structure, Benoît Jacquot's "Three Hearts" is an imperfect but still satisfying melodrama about love at first sight, the cruelty of fate and passion that never fades.

The film kicks with a "Before Sunrise" like prologue. Tax inspector Marc (Benoît Poelvoorde) has missed the last train back to...