Review: With 'Misericordia,' Alain Guiraudie Achieves Hot Queer Suspense Once More

French director Alain Guiraudie ("Stranger by the Lake") returns to hot queer suspense with "Misericordia," in which a local man returns to his village, Saint-Martial, after 10 years for a funeral and lands in a hotbed of sexual and criminal intrigue.

Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) joins the widowed Martine (Catherine Frot) and her son, Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand), in their grief when the local baker – and Jérémie's onetime boss – passes away. The tension starts right away, as Jérémie and Vincent regard each other warily. Later, Martine drops a hint of something unresolved in the situation when she asks Jérémie if he ever told... someone... that he loved him.

Does she mean Vincent? Her dead husband? Or maybe Walter (David Ayala), who lives outside of town and scrapes by without working?

Jérémie is in no hurry to leave Saint-Martial for the big city once again; he's been unemployed since leaving his job at a baker's a few months before. The pace of life, and Martine's company, suits him fine. But Vincent, growing aggravated with Jérémie's presence, starts to grow more aggressive and hostile, demanding that Jérémie take his leave once more.

Jealousies are spoken of (were Jérémie and Vincent once a couple? Were Vincent and Walter?) and Vincent imagines that Jérémie is angling to seduce Martine – a scenario that, one suspects, Martine would not mind. As the two old acquaintances continue to rub each other the wrong way, friction – then sparks – and, finally, a fiery, violent outburst results. There's a body hidden in the woods, a missing man, and an inquisitive priest (Jacques Develay) whose frequent forays into the forest to gather mushrooms proves handy for gathering clues... and whose views on sex and sin are wholly unexpected.

Will conscience bring the guilty party to ruin? Will lust? As suspicions grow among the small circle of friends, family, and acquaintances, Guiraudie ratchets up the suspense, playing paranoia against the tranquil wooded setting as skillfully as he contrasted the waterside peace in "Stranger by the Lake" with erotic terrors.

"Misericordia" opens in theaters March 21.