First Hit: This film was interesting on multiple levels including the acting and the storyline.
Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is an aging actress who is asked to play a part that is opposite of a part she played some 20 years earlier.
Part of her reluctance to take the part is that she still relates to the young girl's part not the part she is offered. The original play and the updated play is written by a recluse who is a friend of Maria’s . Maria has an assistant named Valentine (Kristen Stewart) who is young and wants her boss to take the part. It is being directed by a young director that Valentine likes and his choice to play Maria’s old part is Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) who is a bad girl of Hollywood because she often ends up in the tabloids.
However, when Maria meets Jo-Ann for the first time she is impressed with her intelligence and thoughtfulness. Much of the film is Valentine and Maria going over the lines in the play, which dive into their generational differences as well as their personal feelings about love and life. This film is as much about the story as it is about what they learn in reading lines together.
Binoche was really good as a star actress towards the end of her career seeing age and aging differently than when she did as a young woman. Stewart was superb as Valentine. She is both transparent and interesting. She is very relaxed in this role. Moretz is very strong and I enjoyed her part. Oliver Assayas wrote and directed this film and it felt well controlled and guided.
Overall: It was an interesting study in people and the depth of the acting was quite good.