There’s been a particularly dire dearth of comedic dramas for adults in the last several years, exacerbated by changing trends in movie theatre attendees, and in this grim month of January slop, that makes films such as Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life feel like an ice-cold pitcher of water in the desert (known also as your local multiplex). The French filmmaker went stateside to cast her latest, a frothy caper with some serious edge beneath the surface. Joining along for the ride is Jodie Foster, one of America’s most steely actresses, renowned for her icy facade, which has led to great results again and again. Here, she gets to unwind and let loose, and it’s an absolute pleasure to watch.

Foster plays Dr. Lilian Steiner, an American psychologist who spends her days seeing patients in perpetually gloomy Paris. At the start of the film, she’s blindsided by the sudden suicide of her patient Paula (Virginie Efira), kicking off an odd chain of events: a patient who berates her for failing to get him off cigarettes; a heightened experience at Paula’s shiva where her husband accuses Lilian of overdrugging her; and a visit to her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), an eye doctor who seems more amused by her new uncontrollable crying than anything else. Events make Lilian believe that Paula was murdered instead of committing suicide, and she drags Gabriel along into the Hitchcockian web she plans to unweave strand by strand.

Some choice surrealist sequences aside (including a bizarre callback to 1940s France), A Private Life shines best when Foster and Auteuil are working together. Auteuil plays the straight man still in love with his ex, allowing Foster to put aside the frigid reserve she’s known for, and she can cut loose, speaking in French while a few English curses slip through the cracks. As she tries to figure out exactly what happened to Paula, she picks up the thread on how to be a better listener, which would definitely be a boon for her son Julien (Vincent Lacoste), now dealing with a newborn. It’s unfortunately the weakest strand of the movie, meaning the emotional impact isn’t perhaps fully formed.

However, that doesn’t stop the film from being a fizzy pleasure to watch whenever Foster and Auteuil are up to sleuthing antics, amateurs on the case while reckoning with their romantic history. Foster in particular shines in the role of Lilian, anchoring this entire film on her sudden shakiness and her new questioning of whether hypnosis is effective. As a film, it’s silly in a good way, designed to be catnip for anyone who gets a kick out of Jessica Fletcher or Only Murders in the Building. If you’re seeking something for adult audiences this weekend, this is a good place to start.

A Private Life is currently in theaters.

Rating: R for Languge, Graphic Nudity, Brief Violence, and Some Sexual Content

Watch the trailer to A Private Life: