French actress Isabelle Adjani celebrates her 49th birthday this year — although to the naked eye, it appears she dumped about 20 of those years into the Seine. To put it more plainly, the woman looks good — eerily good, in fact, like she's been dining on the blood of Romanian virgins or something.

In Jean-Paul Rappeneau's ticklish wartime thriller "Bon Voyage," Adjani uses that youthful, silky pulchritude like a velvet lasso, playing a spoiled movie actress who has a comically mesmerizing effect on spies, politicians and patriots alike. And the movie, in turn, has a similar effect on us.

Rappeneau is like a magician, creating a delightful spectacle of intrigue, romance and heroism that keeps us utterly rapt clear through to the not-so-bitter finish. The year is 1940, and France is taking its Nazi medicine lying down. With Paris overrun, high society has flooded westward into Bordeaux. Among the well-heeled refugees is Viviane (Adjani), a manipulative but essentially weak woman, and Beaufort (Gerard Depardieu), a high-ranking government minister and Viviane's current sugar daddy.

Beaufort is resigned to a complete German takeover of France and is softening up Parliament for armistice. Enter Frederic (Gregori Derangere), Viviane's childhood friend and lifelong sucker for her charms. Back in Paris, Frederic took a murder rap for Viviane (she killed a crazed lover in self-defense) and now he's come looking for her in Bordeaux, mostly just to get an explanation as to why she left him in the lurch.

Quite by accident, Frederic makes some new friends along the way: An elderly Jewish physicist (Jean-Marc Stehle) and his comely assistant Camille (Virginie Ledoyen from "8 Women"), who happen to be carrying Europe's only known quantity of heavy water strapped down in the back seat of their Citroen. If the Nazis get their hands on the stuff, it could tip the race for the atom bomb in their favor. Frederic does what he can to help, unwittingly attracting the notice of a ruthless German spy (Peter Coyote) posing as a British journalist. It's all poppycock, of course — French heavy water indeed! — but such cunning, captivating poppycock.

In the wartime climate of danger and paranoia that Rappeneau so smartly manufactures, anything seems possible and the many random filaments come together just so. The director also adds just a touch of high burlesque, making it suspenseful and funny. Too bad Johnny Depp, who thrives in these kinds of movies and lives in France, couldn't have joined in on the fun.

Rappeneau has described himself as a "child of the defeat" and "Bon Voyage" seems designed to exorcise a few of those still-lingering defeatist Vichy demons. In perfect French fashion, Rappeneau finds his trophy in the resounding image of a long-awaited kiss.

Bon Voyage
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu, Gregori Derangere, Virginie Ledoyen
Rating: PG-13 (some violence)
Playing: Opens Friday exclusively at Harkins Camelview
Running time: 114 minutes
Grade: A-