Ok , be
warned. French art film coming up. I don’t know, for some reason, of all the
“arty” films out there – busy scaring common or garden movie goers – the French
ones seem to be the scariest. In public perception any way. I think this is
mainly the fault of great directors such as Godard and Truffaut, whose
pioneering works are often, admittedly, quite difficult to analyse for the
untrained eye (and even for the trained eye). This has, in my view, had a sort
of knock-on effect to a lot of French films later on in that, through the simple
virtue of being French (and in French – a cardinal sin in some parts of the
English speaking world) were deemed incomprehensible (and I don’t just mean
linguistically). This film definitely affords us many, many reasons to stop and
think. This is one of these ones. I have some major gripes with it – one thing I
cannot ABIDE in a film is errors of logic in the films universe – there are
bits of the film that work SO well and the acting – especially Kristin Scott
Thomas – is just so wonderful that I simply couldn’t let it slip. Ok, let’s get
to the story and I’ll tell you what you mean.
Ok, so,
usually after a crime is committed – in the ideal world of film anyway – the
baddies are caught, put in jail and receive punishment for their crimes. Ok,
but then what? When the prison sentence is over? When the inmate comes out? It
is precisely this question that Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) is searching
for. She has just come out of prison after having committed a particularly heinous
crime. A crime that has cost her her career and estranged from her entire
family, especially her younger sister with whom their parents have ensured they
are now complete strangers. Thing is though, Juliette has no one else. And when
social services do contact Léa, her sister, Léa has a lot of romantic ideas
about regaining her sister. It is in this way that Juliette comes to stay with
her and her family while she looks for work and a place of her own. However, between the fifteen years they spent
apart, the parent’s brainwashing and Juliette’s real difficulty in adapting to
the outside world, this is most definitely not going to be the idyllic reunion
Léa is dreaming of. It may lead to the sisters truly getting to know each
other. But for that to happen, everyone is going to have to let their guard
down, and real emotions, sometimes bottled up for decades, are going to have to
come pouring out…
Now, I am
going to tie myself into knots explaining this. The main problem is the slow
revelation of what Juliette did and why is an integral part of the film. If you
know that, you will probably enjoy it a lot less. The suspense and the shock is
the main part of the story. So I will try and discuss my problem with the film
without revealing too much. OK. So as you can guess from the 15 year sentence,
on the surface of things, Juliette has done a pretty bad thing. Also
recognisable of course from the fact that her parents completely “abandoned”
her and brainwashed her sister almost into denying her existence. But the more
you get to know Juliette – and this is tough enough as communication and
demonstrating feelings are by far not her strong point – the more you begin to
suspect there is more to the story than meets the eye. There is. There is what
are to me major extenuating circumstances to the whole affair. The point is,
these circumstances are such that logically speaking THERE IS NO WAY they
wouldn’t come up in a trial. There is no way they would remain an utter secret
all these years. The sister ONLY JUST finding out about it… Not realistic. Even
assuming that after reaching adulthood she was so brainwashed she did no
research of her own. I mean, once I hit on that point it niggled me all the way
through the film. It’s a major flaw in logic in my view. The only thing you can
do really is to just assume that’s the way that universe functions and carry on
watching. Not that I’m saying there is nothing else to watch, heck no, there is
a TON.
First of
all, kudos to Kristen Scott Thomas. I mean, my God. She takes on Juliette, a
character coping with a lot of very complex psychological situations and makes
her very real and very approachable. And judging the matter purely on what a
difficult and complicated person Juliette is, it is no mean feat. Her
performance alone justifies a lot of the prestigious awards the film walked
away with in my view. But then there are so many little details in the story.
Juliette’s crime emerges in the oddest places and slaps her in the face with
such force… You physically cringe at the insight with which the emotional
“slaps” come. After all here, as with most things in life, it’s the little
things that count. I was also impressed with Léa’s adopted daughters – or more
specifically the older one. She gives a surprisingly high quality and insightful
performance for her young age.
In short,
the film is chock-full of sensitivity, imagination and provides a lot of
food for thought. You definitely should watch it. Just don’t overanalyse it, if
you get what I mean. This film is more about emotions than anything else – and
when judged on that criteria, it does a damn fine job.
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