An almost perfect independent film. It has all the trappings of a big-budget studio production. The acting is "award" quality and the characters are exactly the kind of people you would find in real life, were they living the tightly woven story-line. There is the broken, middle-aged wife and mother, Beatrice, who is finally coming to grips with the fact that her marriage and her life have been pigeon-holded into a series of boxes in her mind. She clearly is unable to deal with more than one problem, one emotion at a time. She begins to unravel as she and her teenaged son arrive in southern France, from England, to pack up the family's rustic, rural vacation home they are selling. The son clearly does not realize the fragility of his mother at the hands of his father, who we only meet near the end of the film. The boy, Eliot, is discovering his own self, and finds joy and purpose that he has decided to become a writer, of poem, of plays, of anything. He meets Clement, a boy from Paris who has come to live with his aunt while his mother is dying of cancer. His father wants to spare him of that ordeal, but Clement has turned his pain into anger and confusion. He, like Eliot, feels alone amidst the similarites of their family situations. Clement's emotions and secrets are more deeply buried than those of Eliot, who tries to "be himself" as much as he is able. The two boys become friends, but it's clear that the only thing they have in common is that they know how to share pain. It is obvious that Eliot is deeply attracted to Clement. We don't quite know how Clement feels about Eliot, but they find some basis for mutual understanding even if it is only in their differences. The inevitable physical encounter is what finally defines the truth of their connection. The movie is beautifully photographed, with a score that is never out of beat with the story. As mentioned before, the actors are completely in touch with their characters. The direction is consistant, and nuanced toward each actor as individuals and also as a group. There are no false moments, and we are completely and emotionally drawn into the story, which has a few uncomfortable moments that we can all recognize in ourselves. When the end credits roll, we know all we need to know, and there is the sense that this story won't be one that will be soon forgotten.
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Top reviews from other countries
Thomas Mackan
It's a bad time to upset the boy's life as he is ...
Reviewed in Canada on October 22, 2017Alexandre 84
un film, poétique, sensible, une belle histoire
Reviewed in France on December 3, 2017
Finnegan
Der Film hat mich in seinen Bann gezogen
Reviewed in Germany on May 31, 2017