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5.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime, penetrating and engaging story!, May 4, 2006
It is really astonishing how the French filmmakers are capable to make such splendid films with such means economy. This is a spelling picture, framed with a lavish, poignant and engaging script.
A familiar tragedy, a very young marriage is terribly affected by the sudden death of that mother. Her child will be sent to spent several months with his grandfather; and soon a intense affective lace will be established between both extremes of the link. The grandfather will experience a delirious emotional enrichment with this visit, as well as his grandson who will experience a new life' s scheme in the middle of those arresting landscapes.
But the affective memories of this child are not easy to erase. And he will do his best in order to make the journey to that snowed mountain, where his mother's body has not been rescued.
A haunting and touching film told with supreme expressive elegance and sumptuous originality.
Go for this.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine sentimental film that could have been a plane wreck, April 11, 2009
Jacques Villeret is the best actor in the world, period.
Although his "Gaspard" (no surname) is similar to his "Jojo Braconnier" in "Un crime au Paradis", he never grows weary, nor do we. Such honesty is rare.
The film's plot is trite. Its development could be less melodramatic but.
I didn't complete like Tom, the protagonist, but he's good at making and unbearably stubborn child not be hateable, but to understand his mourning and flights to fantasy (he's no angel, make no mistake).
Claude Brasseur makes an eerily similar character to his superb role in "camping". Again, he's a man who loves cars, money and stereotypes a bit too much :), but he carries it off like if he was born for the role.
Clovis Cornillac is a young father who could be more convincing, but that's the story's fault, who shows him making completely different choices in the beginning and the end.
Michèle Laroque is an almost too perfect (and nice!) maitresse. Again, like in "Un crime", a pivotal figure. It's moving how the French really trust their teachers, there are so many films dealing with education it shows they care. Comparisons with our Third World make us wonder.
As usual with French films, the "country and the city" subplot is like a river, always full of energy. From the difference in vocabulary and "useful knowledge" to the way to educate/discipline children and treat women, all is different, and yet, as we're in a comedy of sorts, all is happily solved within a few minutes.
The technical aspects are fine. You feel the mountain, the cold, and the piano theme is perfect for the action. Not too romantic, but with feelings.
Nice for a Saturday evening.
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