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'La Moustache' tickles the mind

Not since "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek shaved off his mustache has there been this much fuss over a few chunks of facial hair.

Technically, however, it's the fuss not made over a vanished mustache that provides the plot for "La Moustache," an exceptionally fascinating film that demands a little audience guesswork a la another French puzzler, "Swimming Pool."

Cinema Guild, Inc. 'La Moustache' B+ The verdict: A trippy and absorbing mind-tickler from France. Director: Emmanuel Carrère Starring: Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Hippolyte Girardot, Cylia Malki Run time: 86 minutes Language: French with subtitles Rating: Not rated but there are mature themes and brief language. On the web Official movie site Rate 'La Moustache'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Marc (Vincent Lindon) and Agnès (Emmanuelle Devos) are a well-off, long-married Parisian couple on their way to a dinner party with some old friends. Before they leave, Marc has a prankish thought: What if he shaved off the mustache he's had for more than a decade?

So he does — and Agnès doesn't notice. Or, at least, she seems not to notice. But no one says anything at dinner either, leading Marc to believe they've all ganged up to play a practical joke on him. By the next day, Marc can't take it anymore. He wants a reaction from his wife. Any reaction.

"I've shaved off my mustache!" he declares, sounding triumphant and a little miffed.

"I don't understand," she replies. "You never had a mustache."

And we're off to the races. Or, more likely, down Alice's rabbit hole. Marc has apparently plunged into an alternate reality. He hears a message from his father on the answering machine, but Agnès insists the man died more than a year ago. The menu at their favorite restaurant has changed, but Marc's the only one who notices. And when a total stranger looks at a photo-booth picture he's just taken of himself, she sees a mustache.

But ... wait ... didn't he just shave his mustache?

Now we're all down the rabbit hole.

Working from his own novel, first-time director Emmanuel Carrère has made a movie all about maybes. Maybe Agnès is right. Maybe Marc never had a mustache. Maybe he's delusional and she has every right to be increasingly panicked by his behavior. Or maybe he's not and something is very, very wrong.

Somewhere near the middle of the film, we realize we've been seeing everything from Marc's point of view and taking his word at face value. Maybe he's the most unreliable narrator in recent movie memory. Maybe ...

As we try to make sense of Marc's predicament, Carrère puts us in the spin cycle — literally at one point — and doesn't let up.

The picture raises all sorts of questions, metaphysical and otherwise, then gleefully refuses to answer them. Is the mustache a sign of Marc's waning virility? Could it be a symbol of what happens when couples come to take their marriage and each other for granted? Are we being asked to consider the mutability of identity, or is Carrère showing us a Kafkaesque midlife crisis? (If so, the American remake might well be called "The Corvette.")

"La Moustache" is both existentially funny and genuinely disturbing, often at the same time. An elegantly acted psychological puzzle, it's like watching a nervous breakdown from the inside out.