‘The New Girlfriend’ has depth and humor

‘The New Girlfriend,” a wry film by French director Fran?ois Ozon, accomplishes a delicate thing: It makes fun of its characters while eliciting deep sympathy for them.

A shrewd prologue defines Claire (Ana?s Demoustier) and Laura (Isild Le Besco) as lifelong best friends. But Laura dies shortly after childbirth, leaving Claire and Laura’s husband David (Romain Duris) reeling from the loss. When Claire visits David’s lush home one afternoon, she discovers something startling: He is dressed as a woman.

Claire is at first apologetic, then judgmental — she calls him a pervert — only to discover that she enjoys knowing David’s secret. The unlikely pair develop a clandestine relationship — one that gets more delicious and dangerous as David transforms into Virginia, a name Claire gives her new friend.

Claire finds pleasure with a facsimile of Laura, while David/Virginia conflates fashion with identity. Ozon’s point is simple: How friendship makes us feel is sometimes more important than the friendship itself.

The two lead performances are perfectly calibrated for the material. Demoustier’s character is not a prude, but a conservative woman who nonetheless trusts her feelings. Duris accomplishes something trickier with his dual identities: Virginia moves with a genuine feminine grace, containing grief alongside the thrill of discovery. There’s an important erotic scene where Virginia and Claire attend a drag revue, and Ozon has the patience to let their desires awaken, without dialogue.

In Ozon’s hands, “The New Girlfriend” has moments that juxtapose gentle humor and surprising depth of feeling.