At face value LA MOUSTACHE appears to be an exercise in far-fetched, existential conceit. The trailer certainly doesn't allow a prospective viewer any more information than its premise: a man shaves off his moustache in an effort to change his image. His girlfriend doesn't notice. As a matter of fact... no one does. He begins to get increasingly disturbed that no one would notice something as elemental as facial hair... and then things suddenly spiral out of control.<br /><br />Certainly it would make anyone think: "Come on, now. A thriller about a man losing his mind because no one has noticed he shaved his moustache off? Isn't this taking it a little too far?" The truth of the matter is, it's not -- LA MOUSTACHE is merely a set-up in the most elusive of ways, creeping up on the viewer like the best of the Polanski apartment thrillers (where nothing is as it seems) -- and it sends the hapless Marc (Vincent Lindon) into a world that doubles in on itself one-fold, two-fold, while seeming chillingly normal.<br /><br />Maybe it's a commentary on the dangers of being too wealthy (because had we had a struggling couple, something as banal as a moustache wouldn't even enter the picture). Marc and Agnes (Emmanuelle Devos) live what can be called a life in the lap of luxury in a sleek loft apartment. They seem to be elementally happy, until one minor, laughably trivial incident throws them into an increasingly jarring descent into marital alienation of the likes of the unhappy couple in George Cukor's GASLIGHT with the genders switched, which grows creepier as Marc suddenly becomes suspicious of everything around him and wonders if events in his life have even occurred. Because as simple as that, from the denial of a moustache's existence, now his own is in peril.<br /><br />And from here on, the story manages to go into uncharted territory, and giving more details about it would be essentially spoiling the fun that this very suppressed, very elegant thriller is. LA MOUSTACHE is an intriguing puzzle in some ways akin to the puzzle of CACHE, where another couple's happiness becomes ensnared in an intrigue that may or may not be happening. Sparse, deliberate while not being too slow (yet not revealing too much too soon), this is a high-concept thriller that should be seen.