BY ELLA FELDMAN, JUNIOR EDITOR

As much as I adore going to movie theaters, I don’t find myself doing it nearly as much as I’d like. Before seeing “The Blue Room” (directed by Mathieu Amalric) I hadn’t watched a movie in theaters in about two months. The film, although brief, reminded me of everything I loved about movies, and how pleasant sitting in a room with a bunch of strangers and watching a work of art can be. After it was over, I couldn’t help but compare the movie to the last one I had seen, “Gone Girl” (directed by David Fincher), which came out early October. Both are suspenseful stories based on novels and deal with the themes of a crumbling marriage and betrayal. But The Blue Room did everything I wish “Gone Girl” had. The plot of the latter was far too complicated to be enjoyable, and moves as if Fincher had had no patience. All of this madness occurs in almost two and a half hours, so having Amalric keep his film under eighty minutes was a breath of fresh air.

“The Blue Room” begins with a passionate encounter in an empty hotel room with blue walls. It quickly becomes clear that neither of the lovers are meant to be there, and a sexy and thrilling plot about adultery, crime and passion begins. The two lovers are introduced to us as Julien (played by Amalric himself) and Esther (Stéphanie Cléau). A dark and uneasy mood set into place in the first scene and continues to develop, until the movie is suddenly interrupted by a present day scene of police interrogating Julien about his affair. The question of why the police are interrogating Julien in the first place is one that stays unresolved until more than halfway through the film, and the question of his guilt is one the viewer has to answer for themselves. The plot develops through flashbacks of Julien and Esther meeting in the same room from the beginning of the film, scenes of Julien with his family, and tension rising in the current investigation involving both of the lovers. As the movie approaches its fin, the focus shifts to yet another blue room: a courtroom, in which a disconcerting verdict is made that leaves audiences reflecting on the possible deception of many flashbacks. It’ll be impossible to not have an opinion by the time you finish the movie, but the subtlety of hints and questions that remain unanswered make it impossible to be sure of anything.

“Gone Girl,” like many mainstream American films answered every possible question that could’ve made it more interesting, and while I thought about the events that transpired in “The Blue Room” long after the credits rolled, Fincher’s film was already out of my mind by the time I was throwing out my empty soda cup. Both the films had great acting, but it’s a lot easier to appreciate acting when the characters seem like real people, and not just pieces in an overworked story. “The Blue Room” was refreshing in every way, and highlighted all the things that are great about movies themselves.