‘The Story of My Wife’ Review: Léa Seydoux Cannot Keep Pretty but Ponderous Period Piece Afloat
Jessica Kiang Though legendary for a callous disregard for the lives of the sailors who criss-cross her stormy surfaces, the sea turns out to be a far milder mistress than Léa Seydoux in Ildikó Enyedi’s handsome but heavy-bottomed “The Story of My Wife,” the Hungarian director’s first return to Cannes since winning the Camera d’Or for her charming 1989 debut, “My Twentieth Century.” Starring Imola Lang’s superb 1920s/’30s production design, Leá Seydoux’s bouncy, tousled bob and Seydoux herself — in roughly that order — the film probably contains enough visual flourish to fill a perfectly watchable, if hardly groundbreaking feature. Just not one that sails dangerously close to the three-hour mark, taking on water the whole time.