The French Lieutenant's Woman

1/17/2025

Usually if there are two separate timelines featured in a story, the director tries to ensure that we cannot readily distinguish between one that might be true and one that might be artificial. It's the complete opposite that really works well here as we mingle the story of an 18th century woman living within the constraints of high Victorian society with a more profligate 1970s one. To fit out the earlier scenario, we meet the shy "Sarah" (Meryl Streep) who is rebounding from a liaison with the titular French lieutenant by having an even less suitable assignation with the altogether more decent "Charles" (Jeremy Irons). The modern day scenario has the same two actors playing "Anna" and "Mike", only both are married to others and they are the "real" life actors portraying these other chara