Charlotte 'The Look' Rampling has had a wonderfully idiosyncratic film career giving a lot of great performances in some fascinating and distinctive movies (who else would have starred in Max Mon Amour, as a woman having an affair with a chimp?!) but this could be her best role and she acts everybody off the screen with it.
As a woman grieving, she's caught between a sort of fantasy existence imagining her missing, probably long-dead, husband by her side as she's almost falling into a new life without him. Rampling employs 'The Look', of course but there are many layers here... Passion, longing, horror, resilience, profound sadness, hope.
The film is understated almost restrained, but also quietly sophisticated. Occasionally director Francois Ozon lets the soundtrack and imagery overwhelm. It's not the best film Rampling has been in, although it is broadly excellent. But it's possibly the best performance she's ever given.