****1/2

Director: Roger Michell

Duration: 93 minutes (UK)

Watching an ageing married couple hit the streets of Paris for a weekend of bickering, fighting and, well, generally fall apart is probably not the average person’s prime preparation for Valentine’s Day.

However, released on DVD this week comes a brilliant character driven release from Curzon films. Despite being directed by Roger Michell, this couldn’t sit further away from Notting Hill in terms of tone.

Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are visiting the French capital in celebration of their wedding anniversary. All is not well within the camp and ill feeling is very much bubbling on the surface.

After checking into a very expensive hotel and checking out the local eateries, they have a chance encounter with Nick’s old university pal Morgan (Jeff Goldblum). He is living in Paris and invites the pair over to his house for a soiree.

The characters appear to have a genuine history. They burn the screen with the baggage of marital endurance. This is the sort of illusion that can only be mustered when the right actors meet the right script. That has occurred here.

This is a film that seduces the viewer. It plays slightly hard to get for a while, it must be said, but tips you over the edge by the credits. It is so refreshing to see a film that isn’t diluted with schmaltz by the mucky hands of the studios. Fantastic.

Le Week-End is released onto DVD and Blu-Ray on 10h February 2014.

You can find the trailer here: