{"id":673382,"date":"2026-05-16T12:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/673382\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T12:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:08:08","slug":"think-good-review-monia-chokri-convinces-in-tense-marital-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/673382\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Think Good’ Review: Monia Chokri Convinces in Tense Marital Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe contemporary Franco-Belgian cinema certainly does not lack for films about toxic relationships and domestic abuse, with Xavier Legrand\u2019s \u201cCustody\u201d and Val\u00e9rie Donizelli\u2019s \u201cJust The Two of Us\u201d among the recent best. An impressively shot, tension-filled drama about a woman trying to escape from an abusive, controlling husband, featuring strong performances by French-Canadian thesps Monia Chokri<\/a> and Nils Schneider, French writer-helmer G\u00e9raldine Nakache<\/a>\u2019s \u201cThink Good<\/a>\u201d is pretty textbook as these things go. But it gains an extra piquancy from being centered on a modern Orthodox Jewish couple, with select religious rituals and rules impacting the drama and the visuals. Fest and boutique distributors should think good about this title, which unspools in this year\u2019s non-competitive Cannes Premiere sidebar.<\/p>\n

\n\tParisians Gil (Chokri, president of this year\u2019s Camera d\u2019Or jury at Cannes), a camera assistant on film shoots, and Jacques (Nils Schneider), a businessman, meet in Dubai where he sweeps her off her feet with his intense love-bombing. When she becomes pregnant, she considers an abortion, but he talks her into marriage, despite the fact they barely know each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth sides of the couple are Jewish, although Gil enjoys her religion without much ritual or public observance. For Jacques, however, rigid adherence to the outward rules of his faith are important, yet in an early tell of his pathological side, he cautions Gil not to mention her pregnancy to their Rabbi (Daniel Cohen) or the operator of the mikvah where she must immerse herself before their wedding.<\/p>\n

\n\tShot in Scope, filled with intimate closeups of the couple, the film lets the audience experience the same upsetting jolt as Gil over Jacques\u2019 desire for control and toxic possessiveness. He constantly belittles her very normal desires such as wanting to return to work, saying it would make her a bad wife and a bad mother. If she argues with him, he accuses her of creating drama and being selfish. He doesn\u2019t like to be around her friends or her family \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t like her to spend time with them either. He always inquires suspiciously about her ex, about where she has been and who she has talked to. Sometimes he is aggressive and sometimes passive-aggressive. The threat of physical violence lurks in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the film moves backwards and forwards in time, we witness more and more disturbing incidents. One of the hardest to watch, for its sheer mental cruelty, takes place at the hospital after Gil gives birth to their daughter Thais. Gil\u2019s excited parents Annah (Cl\u00e9mentine C\u00e9larie) and Alain (Christian Benedetti) arrive along with her friends Agnes (Mina Kavani) and Ibrahim (Oussama Kheddam) to congratulate her. Jacques blocks them from entering the room, saying that Gil needs her rest. Annah\u2019s resulting anguish is so uncomfortable for the others, that Ibrahim and Jacques practically come to blows.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the baby is born, Jacques moves them to an isolated spot in the countryside, making it difficult for Gil, who doesn\u2019t drive. Not content with a baby monitor in the nursery, he installs them all over the house. When Gil objects, knowing that he wants to spy on her, he calls her unreasonable. With its wood and glass, the modern house looks open and comfortable, but for Gil it feels like a prison. DP Sylvestre Vannorenberghe provides continual visual reinforcement of her feelings, such as when she wants to go out, but sees Jacques lurking on their garden swing like a giant spider.<\/p>\n

\n\tNakache, here helming her fourth feature, grew up in an Algerian Jewish family and makes her characters\u2019 religion more than mere window-dressing for the story. In a cheering late development that provides momentary relief from the tension between the couple, another encounter with the sympathetic Dubai rabbi offers some wise direction for the unhappy Gil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the record, Nakache is the sister of director Olivier Nakache, who has his own 2026 feature (co-directed with Eric Toledano) boasting Jewish characters called \u201cJust An Illusion.\u201d The title comes from Gil\u2019s mother\u2019s not particularly helpful advice, \u201cIf you think good, good things will come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The contemporary Franco-Belgian cinema certainly does not lack for films about toxic relationships and domestic abuse, with Xavier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,5328,75,247733,247734,337,247735],"class_list":["post-673382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-gu00e9raldine-nakache","tag-monia-chokri","tag-movies","tag-think-good"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}