A chance meeting at a self-defence class puts Arnaud (Azaïs) toe to toe with Madeleine (Haenel), a feisty tomboy whose hard-as-nails exterior seems to conceal a heart of stone. Easygoing Arnaud is smitten, and when Madeleine signs up for a paratrooper training camp, he enlists along with her, and a tentative romance begins.
Cailley’s feature debut is nicely scripted, shot and played (it won several César awards, including Best Actress for Haenel, and Best First Film), and a great deal better than the toe-curling UK title suggests (the French title was Fighters), but because it’s written, directed and performed with the same spirit of *laissez-faire *with which Arnaud carries himself, it sometimes feels so slight that the lightest breeze could blow it away.