‘The (Ex)perience of Love’ Review: A Couple Must Sleep With All Their Old Flames in High-Concept Comedy

variety.com:

Catherine Bray What if you had to track down and have sex with everyone you’ve ever slept with, for the good of your current relationship?

That’s the quirky premise of Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni’s new comedy, ‘The (Ex)perience of Love,’ the follow-up to their 2020 debut “Une vie démente.” When we meet them, the couple in question, Sandra (Lucie Debay) and Rémy (Lazare Gousseau), are hoping to have a child, and after having no luck conceiving naturally, they decide to see a doctor.

Curveball: the doctor tells them that they are suffering from a recently identified condition, Past Love Syndrome. The cure is to go forth and finish all their unfinished business, by sleeping with everyone they’ve ever slept with, like a sort of sexy exorcism.

Of course, this exotic premise is really just a jumping off point for a comedy-drama about romantic relationships — the audience is not meant to spent too much time thinking about the likelihood of such a condition; you just have to go with it, as we did with the likes of “50 First Dates,” “13 Going on 30” or, in a different register, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The point of such gambits is to provide an effective what-if framework, which this does perfectly well.