It's funny, broad and never stops moving. It's made to please, and succeeds...The word potiche translates into English as "trophy wife," though in French the word seems to have an extra implication of complete uselessness. At the start of the film, Deneuve is the sheltered wife of a factory owner (Fabrice Luchini), an umbrella maker who is in the midst of a labor dispute with his workers. He doesn't take her seriously, and neither do her kids. But when the boss is taken hostage by his employees, Suzanne (Deneuve) is forced to step in and run the factory - and things begin to change.
A great strength of Ozon's adaptation is that we know, within 10 minutes, where the movie wants to go, so instead of getting there over the next 90 minutes, he streamlines the story and gets there within a half hour - and then builds and changes direction and finds ways to surprise us. Gerard Depardieu plays a leftist politician who shares a past with Suzanne, and his scenes with Deneuve are inflected with a tender acknowledgment of the movies they made when they were young.
The supporting cast is peerless, with Fabrice Luchini, usually funny and sympathetic even at his most aggressive, playing it straight here as Suzanne's bitter husband; and Karin Viard, usually a headliner, lending her star wattage to a subordinate role as the husband's hapless secretary.
[Mick Lasalle, San Francisco Chronicle]