‘Two Women’: Sundance Review

Dir: Chloe Robichaud. Canada. 2025. 99mins

Women just want to have fun in Chloe Robichaud’s pleasing, smoothly-handled screen adaptation of Catherine Leger’s stage success Home Deliveries. Two Women brings a female sensibility to a classic farce as the title characters find that the key to happiness could lie in the joy of casual sex. The film premieres in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic competition, and its combination of mildly steamy encounters and existential angst could attract a similar arthouse audience as did Monia Chokri’s 2023 Cesar-award winning comedy The Nature Of Love.

Brings a female sensibility to a classic farce

Leger’s play is a modern version of the 1970 Claude Fournier film Two Women In Gold, which explores the frustrations of two Montreal neighbours. She has also written the screenplay for this film adaptation which, at times, carries echoes of Denys Arcand’s landmark Quebec cinema titles The Decline Of The American Empire (1986) and The Barbarian Invasions (2003). Two Women is not as obviously political or provocative, but its reflections on modern relationships are engagingly comical, cynical and ultimately tender. 

Violette (Laurence Leboeuf) lives with her husband Benoit (Felix Moati) but feels that their marriage has lost its spark since the birth of their daughter. Sex is just a memory and Benoit’s work often takes him away, frequently leaving her home alone. She seems to be permanently strapped to breast pumps expressing her milk. Her neighbour Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman) lives with her laidback partner David (Mani Soleymanou) and their 10 year-old son Max (Mateo Laurent Membreno Daigle). David spends more time in his greenhouse than he does with Florence, and is convinced that their relationship works best when one of them is on anti-depressants.

Violette and Florence bond in their proximity and shared feelings of discontent. The two women are only a balcony away in a housing cooperative block of apartments. Robichaud (Sarah Prefers To Run, Days Of Happiness) does open out the material, shooting on 35mm and anchoring the film in attractive views of Montreal’s snowy cityscapes and visits to bars, ice hockey games and residents’ meetings. The film still remains attuned to its theatrical roots, however, with much of the story unfolding within the comfy, cosy apartments. Mirrors feature extensively as characters scrutinise themselves or are caught in reflections. Framing seems designed to convey the characters are trapped or limited by their circumstances. 

There are many of the traditional ingredients of farce here, from coded conversations to misunderstandings, innuendo-laden dialogue and running jokes. Robichaud and Leger respect those, but put them to the service of something less frantic and more thoughtful as they explore the complexities of motherhood, mental health and modern love.

Constantly abandoned, Violette and Florence treat every passing male as an object of desire. Ogling and fantasising become a way of coping with their daily boredom and feeling that life is a disappointment. Then, Florence acts on her fantasies with the cable guy and soon countless soft porn scenarios are made flesh as every profession from pest exterminator to plumber is booked to provide their services.

The endorphin rush of infidelity is liberating and, the film posits, maybe monogamy is just a vastly over-rated male concept anyway. Philosophical musings on what the women want, the gap between sex and love and the minefield of relationships add heft to some agreeable, mild-mannered comedy. In the second half, Robichaud and Leger give more weight to Benoit and David as they also start to bond, and everyone is forced to consider what they are putting at risk – and whether it is all worth it.