The Things We Say, the Things We Do (2020) review

While waiting for her spouse François (Vincent Macaigne) to show up, Daphné (Camélia Jordana) and Maxime (Niels Schneider) share stories with each other about past romantic entanglement(s): he goes over his affair with a married woman named Victoire (Julia Piaton) - despite truly being in love with her sister Sandra (Jenna Thiam) - while she talks about lusting after a documentary filmmaker (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) but ending up the mistress of her current husband, who was married to Louise (Émilie Dequenne).  If this sounds messy and overstuffed it certainly is - it also runs the risk of appearing like a parody of France's global reputation for being "promiscuous" - but it's also treated almost like a fairy tale: characters get miffed that they don't have "the one they want" but no one resorts to violence and no one gets physically injured (emotionally ... maybe) and the "worst thing" any of them does is pretending to be in a relationship (a "faux-mance") to try to make a former partner jealous.  I imagine this is what "free love" is supposed to look like: by the conclusion everyone's "supposedly" settled in (and pregnant) ... but that next lover is most likely right around the corner.