Admitted a convalescent home after a serious ski accident, Toni finds herself alone, depending on medical personnel and pain meds for a wounded knee. Left with nothing to do, she starts to reminisce about her life with Georgio, the father of her son. Their story starts off idyllically, passionately, but slowly becomes destructive, violent and uncontrollable.

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An early scene between the lead and her psychologist, who makes her slowly say “genou” (knee) to the point where it becomes “jeu-nous” (game, us) and sets off her introspection, shows how baldy balanced this movie is: it is at times naïve then sincere; funny then sad; natural then very artificial. Equally uneven is the number of director Maïwenn’s detractors and that of fans of her work in Pardonnez-moi, All About Actresses and Polisse. Less clear and smaller than her two previous movies, Mon roi rests almost exclusively on scenes between Emmanuelle Bercot (co-writer of and actress in Polisse) and Vincent Cassel. Unsurprisingly, Maïwenn’s magic works best during dramatic highs and lows , carried by intense energy. But surrounding these good bits, the rest of the movie is simple, taking no chances. Although Bercot won for Best Actress at Cannes 2015, tying with Rooney Mara for Carol, Mon roi remains the director’s most unoriginal movie.