Directed by Wash Westmoreland
Starring Keira Knightley, Eleanor Tomlinson and Fiona Shaw
Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes
MPAA rating: R for some sexuality/nudity

by Deborah Krieger

The thrust of Colette’s plot can be summed up in a single, momentary shot: As Colette (Keira Knightley) and her husband Willy (Dominic West, looking frightfully like Kenneth Branagh as Poirot), ride a tandem bicycle. Sitting in front, Willy lifts his feet from the pedals in a moment of playfulness, while Colette continues pedaling away, keeping them both moving forward. As the ghostwriter of Willy’s bestselling Claudine novels, Colette steadily works to pay the bills, while Willy enjoys the popularity and acclaim that result—until she’s had enough of being a tool, of being an attraction on Willy’s arm, of being half of the Brangelina of Belle Époque Paris. For every Watson and Crick, there’s a Rosalind Franklin.