Messy! Franz Rogowski’s Tomas is so childishly chaotic I found him amusing, but I imagine some (many?) will find him exhausting. Wish that Adèle Exarchopoulos’s Agathe had gotten as much depth as Tomas and Ben Wishaw’s Martin—I can understand why she is ready to fall into Tomas’s spell, but why does she continue? We’re left to guess, and it makes some of the later melodramatic twists feel unearned.
I don’t know that it matters much, though, because the film is more concerned with sensuality than logic—what it feels to furiously pedal home to your partner, racing ahead of your guilt, or to dance with someone and feel the atmosphere slip from curiosity to lust.