In theaters

PLACE VENDOME. Directed by Nicole Garcia. Written by Garcia and Jacques Fieschi. 117 minutes. No MPAA rating. In French with English subtitles.

Nicole Garcia’s seductive new film, “Place Vendome,” stars Catherine Deneuve as Marianne Malivert, a gorgeous, troubled woman of a certain age who finds herself caught in the throes of an international diamond intrigue.

The film, which is so stylish and sophisticated, it seems tailor-made for Deneuve, is sharply elevated by her performance as well as her presence. Indeed, after 37 years as an actress, Deneuve has become that rare pop-culture gem, a screen legend whose beauty and glamour have become so iconic, they’re as captivating as anything playing out on screen.

In the film, Marianne, a drunk who’s lost her enthusiasm for life, is startled into sobriety after the family diamond empire hits the skids, her husband, Vincent (Bernard Fresson), takes his life, and a number of Russian Mafiosi move in from all corners of Place Vendome, the famous Parisian square where much of the film takes place, to stake their claim on the diamonds Vincent stole.

But Marianne, who knows

nothing of Vincent’s theft because, frankly, she’s been too soused for too long to notice, is forced to piece together facts that eventually lead to a series of revelations, re-awakenings, surprise reunions and, if Marianne has the courage to see it through, perhaps even her own rebirth as she rediscovers her gifts for brokering jewels.

Working from a script she co-wrote with Jacques Fieschi, Garcia, herself an actress, tosses into this noir-ish mix a whole host of characters who literally seem to bleed out of the bistros: Jacques Dutronc as Marianne’s former lover, Battistelli, a man who wants the stolen diamonds for himself; Emmanuelle Seigner as Nathalie, a woman working to secure the diamonds for others while trying to work herself out of a romantic triangle; and Jean-Pierre Bacri as Jean-Pierre, a repo man whose sly romance with Marianne leaves the film with its fantastic final shot.

Midway through “Place Vendome,” there’s a line that’s meant to encapsulate the essence of Deneuve’s character, but I think the comment is really Garcia’s attempt to try to pinpoint Deneuve’s own screen appeal: “It’s not that she’s gullible, but that she’s malleable.”

For a woman who has struck envy in so many women and lust in so many men, those words may be an oversimplification of what Catherine Deneuve has that no other working actress has, but they do explain at least part of her enduring appeal and are a good reason why, nearly four decades after she first appeared on screen in Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” that people are still paying attention to her and her work.

Grade: A-

On Video and DVD

PAY IT FORWARD. DIRECTED BY MIMI LEDER. WRITTEN BY LESLIE DIXON. 122 MINUTES. PG-13.

Mimi Leder’s “Pay it Forward” follows Haley Joel Osment as Trevor McKinney, the son of an alcoholic mother and father who’s inspired by his social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), to devise a plan that will change the world.

Since Trevor lives in Las Vegas, the task of changing the world may seem unduly difficult, if not impossible, given that he must begin his mission in Sin City. But Trevor, an 11-year-old boy who literally defines co-dependency, comes up with the novel idea of paying it forward – which essentially means that if someone helps you, you must pass that favor on to three other people, who must then pass it on themselves. And so on.

It’s a concept that may furrow a cynic’s brow before bringing up their lunch, but it nevertheless seems fitting for a child to manufacture. Before fading into flashback, Leder reveals at the start that Trevor’s plan becomes a feel-good movement, the kind self-help gurus such as Oprah get behind. But by revealing the movement’s success, Leder has essentially robbed her film of the tension it could have had if audiences were left with the lingering question of whether Trevor’s plan will work at all.

Countering that, Leder creates tension in other ways – namely, by having Trevor introduce his emotionally scarred mother, Arlene (Helen Hunt), to the physically and emotionally scarred Simonet, a man whose face and body were ravaged by a fire.

If anything lifts “Pay it Forward” out of the tsunami of melodrama that ensues, it’s the dynamics of what happens between Arlene, Trevor and Simonet as their relationships gradually open into trust, friendship and then love. Hunt, Osment and Spacey are so good in their roles, they actually ground the film in reality, thus making it possible to overlook at least some of the script’s contrivances. That is, unfortunately, until the end, when “Pay it Forward” leaps into the deep end of the ocean with two hugely unnecessary twists no performance can save. The first swirls around Simonet, the second around Trevor, and while neither will be revealed here, each nearly kills all that came before.

Grade: C

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com