Reviewed by Robert Hull
Stars Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Almaric, Anne Consigny,
Jean-Paul Roussillon, Melvil Poupaud, Hippolyte Girandot, Emmanuelle Devos, Chiara Mastroianni
Written by Arnaud Desplechin & Emmanuel Bourdieu
Certification UK 15 | US unrated
Runtime 150 minutes
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin
Hearing the description "family drama" is pretty much like asking to have a bucket of ice-cold water tipped over you, before your friends then place you out on the doorstep in the middle of winter. It’s a term that, while technically correct, never envelops a film with the excitement and anticipation it might actually deserve.
Fortunately, director Aranud Desplechin has crafted a stylistically strong ‘family drama’ that belies the genre-tag. And, while it has little to do with Christmas, it does have a lot to do with the messy, fractured world of familial relationships and the truths and lies we keep from each other.
Abel and Junon Vuillard (Rousillon and Deneuve) have endured much in their long marriage: sickness, death, bankruptcy and sibling animosity, so when Junon is diagnosed with cancer they feel that perhaps it might bring the family together (albeit briefly) around the Christmas table.
Most convincing is this film’s untidiness, its refusal to accept that neat and easy solutions are part of family life or are necessary for a satisfactory conclusion to a film. This is a film that opens itself up to actors who enjoy nuance; and also to audiences prepared to sacrifice story for mood and atmosphere.
While the plaudits might fall toward Deneuve and Mathieu Almaric – who as Henri, the black sheep of the Vuillard clan, manages to make a spiteful and bitter character into someone you know families always forgive – the performances that form its emotional core come from Jean-Paul Rousillon and Anne Consigny.Rousillon is the patriarch who loves all of his three children and whose realism rubs alongside a dreamer’s desire for everyone to be happy. Growing up with Henri has emotionally scarred Conisgny’s Elizabeth, and the subsequent hatefulness of their relationship is the catalyst for the movie’s bleak but not depressing narrative.