Review: 'Gemma Bovery' Starring Gemma Arterton Tries To Bring New Heat To An Old Story

Oh, to be beautiful and bored. It has been over 150 years since Gustave Flaubert shocked the world with "Madame Bovary," his groundbreaking book about a provincial doctor's wife who embarks on a tragic affair to escape her dull, routine life. And ever since, the character of Emma Bovary has become both a literary and cinematic archetype, fueling an entire subgenre of stories about women looking to escape their circumstances, only to find hard consequences following dalliances outside their marriage and home. It's a story that still resonates (see our review of Sophie Barthes' straightforward take on the novel starring Mia Wasikowska), but can present-day riff "Gemma Bovary" find any new insights to the yarn Flaubert spun over a century and a half ago?

The short answer is no, but then again, Anne Fontaine's film isn't exactly trying to be progressive either. Based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, the slightly reinvented story is told in flashback...