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Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster sets out to study the complexities of marital revelations and our inner most morals. As a wife uncovers a deep and dark secret about her husband, she must question how much more he has lied about. How much can one do before that bond of trust is broken. Through a harrowing and uncomfortable story, Kreutzer has us questioning the lengths people go to cover up perverse and filth in society, and the ways in which we try to understand it as well. Opening viewers to Gentle Monster, our protagonist performs a rendition of Charles & Eddie’s “Would I Lie to You?” bringing up the idea and the question early on in the film.
Lucy Weiss (Léa Seydoux) is a genius pianist and wonderful mother and wife. Her husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) is a documentary TV producer of mild success. After her latest performance Philip storms home in a frenzy, resulting in them packing up and moving out of the city into the countryside with their son Johnny (Malo Blanchet). What feels like within moments of them moving in, the police are at the door with a warrant for Philip’s arrest. As Lucy heads to the station to find the investigator, heading up to the “child pornography” floor, she soon realizes just how much trouble they might be in. Soon after she is sent spiralling as she comes to the conclusion just how much Philip is involved in the illegalities and disgust of his actions.
Léa Seydoux Delivers a Career-Defining Performance in Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster Cannes 2026
At first unaware, Lucy does not understand what is about to unfold over the next few months in her life. We too, as the viewer, are also lost. What starts at first as an idyllic, simple, and what I believed to be event, this gentle environment soon changes. Gentle Monster is presented to us as a visually pleasing, and musically precise film. Fitting with its protagonist as a pianist and performer, the tunes that bring us along her journey keep us either in a lullaby trance or with our heart rates increasing as time speeds up around her and the truth slowly comes to the surface.
It becomes remarkable how something so pleasing can also be so disgusting and traumatic. Kreutzer both wrote and directed Gentle Monster and after a historical fiction film such as Corsage (2022) you wonder where the idea of her latest feature came to fruition. The current state of the world probably, makes the most sense as to where it came from. But it kept me wondering throughout the 114-minutes, if I was supposed to be okay with understanding why he made his choices, wanting him to be stopped, or simply just feeling disgusted. Questioning morally what our limits are if it comes to someone we love, or know personally. Gentle Monster at first to me, was supposed to be a title that you had to think about. Though it soon becomes revealed its true meaning, perhaps it is still there for the audience to make their own decisions.
It raises questions about the limits of our morality, the law and redemption… How do we deal with the filth that we would condemn without question when it affects our inner circle.
This is a film that for me, is more about creating post-screening discussions than a technical or visual feat.
Seydoux always has a soft and mysterious quality to her acting, needed entirely for this portrayal of Lucy. Moments of confusion, loss, and pain come through in her facial expressions and that strong voice she has. From saying absolutely nothing to shouting at Philip and those around her, Seydoux is phenomenal as the wife who must choose between denial and her husband or protecting her son. While we witness in flashbacks, sometimes uneasy to follow and a bit shaky due to how they come in, Kreutzer hints at the idea of Lucy ignoring the signs longer than before we met the family. In each period of time we are brought to (or try to find as the flashbacks come across unclear), a new Lucy is presented to us. She might be hiding or ignoring tells from Philip, but in each time Seydoux gives the audiences hints to something.
In no capacity will Gentle Monster answer the questions it poses to its audience. Kreutzer keeps us at arms length from Lucy. Though we all feel pity for her, we cannot help but feel the self disdain for her choices and lucid support of her husband’s actions. The film as a whole feels as though it wants us to be okay with what he has done through justifying it. But in truth, I felt sick to my stomach as I bore witness to what Lucy and in turn Johnny suffered. While yes there is a clear pull visually, the problem lies in the constant discomfort from the subject matter.
Gentle Monster premiered on May 15, 2026, as part of the In Competition section at the Cannes Film Festival. While Seydoux is at another peak in performance, morality in characters feels at an all time low. She might steal the show, as predicted, but she can only do so much with her talents. The question of truth lies in the fact that if victims are among us then are those inflicting the pain there as well? That is one thing never truly answered in Gentle Monster. It is an ambiguity that Kreutzer leaves her audience with, quite intriguingly I may add. But still, there is no lack of wanting to know why.
Grade: C-
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Gentle Monster
After relocating with her family to the countryside, a renowned pianist uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love, trust, and deception.
