Aside from the ending - which I'm still not sure about, I thought this film worked remarkably well. The protagonist at first got on my nerves because it was clear he was making a mistake by falling for the stewardess -though we're also led to feel it is a kind of fate drawing him further towards his doom. As their relationship developed, Truffaut uses some Hitchcockian bits of suspense to frustrate us and the hero/heroine as they struggle to find a place to be alone. By then I began to sympathise with the hero, only to learn, eventually, that he was better off being frustrated. I think the ending would have worked a bit better - be more convincing - had I come to know the wife's character better. The ending still kind of worked for me, and in retrospect I like the clockwork quality of the script: this mistake leads to that one, leads to another and another and - BOOM! Not sure why so many people disliked this film - the acting and directing are spot on as far as I can see.
Review of The Soft Skin
