Judith (Virginie Efira) is leading a busy double life: one in France and one in Switzerland. She has two lovers, Abdel (Quim Gutiérrez) with whom she has a little girl Ninon (Loïse Benguerel), and Melvil (Bruno Salomone), with whom she has two older boys. What seems like a delicate balancing act from Judith is a life built on lies, secrets, and a constant juggle between the same conversations without making any progress. With pressure mounting steadily on Judith from both her personal and professional life, she starts to crack under pressure and gets caught in a trap. With a decision needing to be made on which life she wants to choose, Judith decides to run away from it all, losing all control while the situation spirals out of control.
Identity is an important part of our lives. It is an accumulation of our characteristics, birth, race, and other little things that make us who we are as human beings. Writers Héléna Klotz and Antoine Barrud also directly play on the theme of the identity of a woman who is trying to figure out what life she wants to lead that makes her truly fulfilled. Judith is precise on her wants as she has finely tuned in these two parts of herself, especially with Abdel and their daughter Ninon with whom Judith shares a strong bond. But it is her life with Melvil that has been deteriorating and with her eldest son Joris (Thomas Gioria) suspecting of her leading a double life, Judith finds herself in turmoil as it starts to affect her psychologically.
Madeleine Collins feels like a chapter torn out of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo (1958), with more character study and a secret that slowly starts to shed its skin. There comes a point in the movie where Judith loses her sense of identity as she is interviewed by a cop for driving rashly with a stolen identity. The moment which leads to that sequence is one of the most important ones, as it is the scene where Judith faces her reality with Ninon and her part as a mother. The audience, too, is finally let inside Pandora’s box and why exactly Judith chose to lead these two lives.
Efira leads Madeleine Collins with a captivating performance that leaves you mesmerized. The way she takes on her character, especially in the scenes with Gutiérrez and Benguerel, are one to watch for. There is a sense of control to which Efira operates; playing two different personas of the same character is never easy, yet Efira does it flawlessly. The scene where she finally lets out all of her feelings and doubts to Melvil about their marriage, him being an absent husband, and not asking about her work trip is peak performance.
Now and then we all imagine leading a double life, we even map out certain scenarios just to play it by visual. But it is all in theory, because in reality leading one life in itself is hard work and working two lives would wear anybody out both physically, and especially mentally. And that is what happens with Judith, as being two people affects her mentally, leading to some shattering consequences. Madeleine Collins at its core is a character study with surprising twists and turns, with a brilliant performance from Efira and a final act that brings everything full circle and back to reality.
