The opening sequence of a woman hastily typing—overlaid with a frantic operatic score—sets the pace for this twisting and turning film. It’s as French as a croissant and just as layered, just not as sweet.

The Witnesses, set in the early 1980s at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, is a film about selfish choices made by people driven by libido and gain rather than by the commitments they have made. It all starts with Sarah, a children’s book author and an ambivalent new mom, attempting to cross over to adult fiction. Enter her husband, Mehdi, an undercover vice cop patrolling the drug and prostitution rings of Paris.

Sarah and Mehdi have a “non-traditional” (at least in America) marriage, in that both are free to take other lovers. Sarah says she doesn’t mind this, as she always assumes Mehdi will not be able to ever find someone better than her. Their “free” marriage is far from healthy. They are constantly fighting over the care of their child (who remains nameless until his first birthday). Sarah feels she can’t work while trying to take care of the baby and Mehdi’s answer is to simply take the child to its grandparents

Sarah is good friends with a wealthy and older gay doctor, Adrien, who has recently found a new partner, the young, fresh-from-the-south-of-France, vibrant Manu. (He, for some reason, wears the same plaid yellow shirt for 80% of the film; maybe it’s a French thing.) While not platonic, Manu and Adrien are also not lovers; yet the rest of their relationship seems to be a committed one: Manu lives off and on with Adrien (and off and on with his sister), even teaching Adrien how to cook pastry. They vacation together, and are socializing as a couple.

When Sarah invites Manu and Adrien out to a week at the sea with Mehdi and the baby, sparks begin to fly. Once everyone is back in Paris, much bed-hopping ensues. There are a lot of spoilers out there on the web as to who sleeps with whom. All I will say is that one of the characters contracts HIV and all the characters are affected by it, either through direct sexual contact, or just by their concern and morbid fascination with the disease.

Adrien, as a doctor, starts a nationwide educational campaign as his way to deal with the crisis. The other characters in their turn react in predictable ways. This is not a Hollywood “my life has been transformed and now I will never be the same” story; rather, each character’s reaction reflects who they already are as people. No one undergoes a redemptive transformation, and the film ends with a bookend scene from the first time at the sea, showing that nothing has really changed.

The title invites us to be witnesses along with the characters in the film. But witness to what, exactly? is the question. The filmmaker refuses to pass moral judgment on any behavior of his characters; thus we are left to come to our own conclusions. With the possible exception of Manu’s struggling opera-singing sister, this is hardly a likeable crowd. Sarah is so wrapped up in her writing she ignores her wailing unnamed child. Adrien smothers Manu with his neediness. Mehdi is tender when only when it benefits him. And Manu is a classic self-absorbed 20-something looking for a good time. Since the film for the most part ends as it begins, we are left to wonder whether we are witnesses to the sustaining power of narcissism or if we’re meant to be softened by witnessing the beginning of the AIDS crisis.

Perhaps the ultimate message of this film, well put by Sarah’s mother towards its end, is that it is a miracle to be alive, despite our foibles and selfishness. We should celebrate life however and wherever we find it. And that, at least, much like an authentic croissant, is truly something that the viewers can sink their teeth into.

The Witnesses is unrated. There is lots of nudity and gay and hetero sex. After all, it’s French. Some foul language, but somehow not as harsh when it’s in subtitles.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jennie attended a press screening of The Witnesses.