SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN (Nature of Love) (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Monica Choki

Simple like Sylvain is what being with Sylvain is like, as Sophia Magalie Lépine Blondeau) discovers.  Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) is a simple carpenter hired by Sophie to fix up her country home.  Sophia is a 40-something dissatisfied professor who teaches love relationships and hangs out with literary and art-loving folk who look down upon ordinary people.  Opposites attract here — she’s the brains and he’s the brawn — and they quickly begin a tumultuous affair.  But Sophia has a hard time reconciling the reality of their differences, especially when they introduce their family and friends to one another, and their disparate political leanings and varying viewpoints become comically apparent. As their affair continues, the tension between their different worlds comes to a very uncomfortable head.  The first major argument comes fast and furious and Sophie is distraught.  What follows too is fast and quick compared to the film’s slower pace in the first half.  Director Choki creates a credible somewhat angry fable of relationships that does not conform to the standard romantic drama.  The film opens on digital August 13th