Mélanie Thierry is riveting as a distraught Marguerite Duras in Emmanuel Finkiel’s ambitious adaptation of the legendary writer’s semi-autobiographical collection of writings, The War: A Memoir. The setting is 1944 Nazi-occupied France. Duras and her husband, Robert Antelme, are working for the Resistance. When he’s taken prisoner by the Gestapo and deported, she agonizes over his fate and does everything in her power to hasten his release. Enter Vichy collaborator Rabier (a chilling Benoît Magimel) who plays a sinister, flirtatious game with Duras, setting up a series of clandestine meetings and promising information on Robert’s whereabouts. But is he sincere or just trying to dig up dirt on the Resistance underground. The film’s evocative French title, La Douleur — literally translated as “the pain” — perhaps best captures the film’s theme and harrowing depiction of waiting, grief and inner torment in wartime.