Middle-aged couple Pomme (Emmanuelle Devos) and Pierre (Mathieu Amalric) have reached the stage where conversation means saying the wrong things to each other and having them taken the wrong way. Pomme’s clumsiness, which once may have seemed adorable, now irritates Pierre to distraction. Pomme, in turn, snaps at her husband and wonders if he’s having an affair.

This sounds hackneyed, but in fact it’s sprightly, funny and at times piercingly sad. But just as crisis looms, the couple goes hiking, and Pomme decides to stay in the forest to . . . get in touch with nature? See if Pierre will worry about her? Cleanse her soul? Yes to all that, except what she does, mostly, is sit in a cold, hungry heap.

It’s easy to see how the Gretel-without-Hansel parts were supposed to play, but director Sophie Fillières’ movie is at its strongest back in civilization.