Akerman’s stab at commercial cinema sees Juliette Binoche as Béatrice, a young, vibrant Parisian dancer who swaps apartments with Henry (William Hurt), a solipsistic Manhattan psychoanalyst. While Béatrice settles into Henry’s home with ease (even taking on some of his patients), the dour doctor has difficulty adjusting to Béatrice’s bustling Belleville abode — but that ill fit clearly indicates that the odd couple are destined to be together. A classically symmetrical tale of two cities, two cultures, and two seemingly mismatched lovers, A Couch in New York nevertheless evinces an odd (and fascinating) sense of dislocation, as Akerman’s modernist impulses sometimes grind against the rom-com mechanism.