Leslie Felperin 

En Equilibre review – horsing around with Gallic grace

The human and equine stars are magnetic in this tale of passions ignited in the wake of a stunt-riding accident
  
  

En Equilibre
Love on the hoof … En Equilibre. Photograph: Nicolas Schul

This drama stars Albert Dupontel as a horse trainer and stunt rider who is paralysed from the waist down after an accident on a film set. Cecile De France plays a tightly chignoned insurance assessor, who years ago had aspirations to become a concert pianist, who’s trying to persuade him to accept a low-ball settlement. However, his manly mastery and hirsute dignity touches her heart and they fall in love, or at least have an affair, and she starts to rethink her life choices. 

As the above might suggest, this is about as bourgeois and Gallic as a film can be without actually dressing the characters in Breton shirts and draping ropes of onions around their necks, but the actors are undeniably magnetic, the stunt work is duly impressive, and it all trots along at manageable pace. 

Plus, there’s some great equine acting on hand from Othello, the supporting stallion, a chestnut beauty with eyes almost as soulful as Dupontel’s own.

 

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