Emmanuelle Bercot and Vincet Cassel (Film Movement)

Watching a relationship unravel on film can be more frustrating than entertaining. But thanks to strong performances from its leads, it’s hard to look away from the realistic train wreck depicted in the French Drama My King.

Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) is a successful lawyer who’s seriously injured on a skiing trip. Her young son Simbad calls out to mom as she skis down a hill that even the boy knows is a dangerous path. Did she hurt herself on purpose? As Tony’s physical wounds slowly heal in a rehab center, she looks back at what might have driven her to a desperate act.

Flashback to ten years ago, when Tony began a tumultuous relationship with Georgio (Vincent Cassel), an unreliable, charismatic playboy whom she finds irresistible.

He drove her to it.

Cassel is a leading man in French action thrillers like Mesrine, but is best known to American audiences for sleazy supporting roles like the dancing jewel thief in Oceans 12 and a rogue agent in Jason Bourne. The actor spends most of this film needing a shave and a haircut, the kind of slovenliness that the French encourage in unlikely sex symbols like Serge Gainsbourg, even though to most sentient beings it more likely than not indicates that Monsieur He Is No Good.

Georgio is too attached to a suicidal model he used to date, which doesn’t make a self-described normal woman like Tony feel any more confident in his affections. The couple gets married and has a baby, but Georgio is still the same man-child, and the spontaneity that made him so appealing in a nightclub makes him a terrible husband.

What should be a clear cut case of Leave the Frenchie becomes a compelling drama because of Cassel and especially Bercot. The narrative alternates between Tony’s time in rehab and her long relationship with Georgio, and as she struggles to regain use of her damaged knee, flashbacks to her time with Georgio make it clear that this is also the painful healing of a damaged heart.

Actress-turned director Maïwenn previously made the crime drama Polisse (which starred and was co-written by Bercot), but where the characters in that film didn’t quite gel, she gets fantastic performances out of her leads here, as characters try to survive a toxic chemistry that feels completely real. Bercot won the award for Best Actress at Cannes this year, and My King is worth watching for her performance alone.

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My King
Directed by Maïwenn
Written by Etienne Comar and Maïwenn
With Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Bercot
Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and strong langage
Opens today at Angelika Pop-up.