Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

filmalamosa A psychological drama about a father who disappears and dies years later. His son a successful doctor imagines what it would be like if his father had returned in a reverie.This movie explores the pain caused by absent parents and the scars they leave.Beautifully filmed but I found the actor playing the doctor son (the father is also a doctor) and his brother were distorted looking (on purpose?). They look like vampires or 50s space aliens.The film is interrupted by boring not funny monologues by the brother who apparently works as a stand up comedian (in the reverie only I imagine) delivering monologues about the father--this is a plot device that falls flat and ruins rather than helps things. It seems gimmicky.The film is OK... will not affect you deeply like it is supposed to though. Some how it just doesn't quite work? The comedian part is gimmicky and backfires.

hannah-mowat This is a film whose title i find highly significant. It creates a tension throughout all the action which i find highly integral to the significance of the piece. The casting, however, i found cliché. The 'rich yet forlorn' wife of Jean-Luc is predictably docile looking. Beautiful she is, yes, and aristocratic in movement, also, but she is exactly what one expects. Equally, Jean-Luc's lover, who is more Mediterranean looking, with more spirit and with a more voluptuous body, is also the archetypal affair. Why, in 2001 are we still type-casting? However, I find Jean-Luc immaculately chosen, with the touch of 'froideur' in his eyes that hints at a depth in the character, and also, an 'un-depth' for it is very difficult to penetrate his often emotionless actions. Not a film that i would say was beautifully shot...i don't find the photography breathtaking, but it is a perfect french thriller: classy, subtle and psychologically deep.

jotix100 Despite of the great reviews this film got locally and in France, this picture will test the viewer's patience in absorbing the whole story and its details. It is a story that one can only view with a detached attitude since most of it seems to be far fetched, to say the least.Why would the Charles Berling character, married to the beautiful, if a bit of an ice queen, Natalie Regnier, fool around when he has the real thing at home? He stands to lose it all if he tells the wife he's more satisfied with his exotic assistant. Not only that, but he needs a prostitute like he needs a hole in his head! Did Michel Bouquet, the father of the story, beget this children, or are they adopted? No father deserves the double whammy of producing an idiotic doctor and an aspiring comedian, whose humor is so stupid that he'd better have a day time job in the local boulangerie.

Peegee-3 The pace, the images, the characters in this film are deliciously meditative...and although universal in its content, very French in its presentation. Not a film for Americans who want an action-packed, easily accessible narrative. But those who enjoy an intelligent exploration of relationships at a deep even profound level will find this movie to their liking.The basic line sets up the life of a very successful gerontologist, dealing in anti-aging methods, married to a beautiful, compliant young woman and also involved sexually with his attractive assistant. When he receives a letter telling him his father, who has been a doctor in Africa and deserted his family many years ago, has died, we are given a revery from his imagination. In this reflection, his father appears at his elegant home and the rest of the film explores the son's complex relationship and emotions relative to what he believes these might be, should his father actually show up. A very interesting devise...using classic projection and giving us the challenging question "What is real and what is imagined".The cast is superb...with special kudos to Michael Bouquet and Charles Berling, the leads.I recently saw "Life As A House"...and while the performances were fine...the movie itself...dealing again with a father-son relationship...was such a mish-mash of extraneous characters, the real focus and profundity were lost in the Hollywood glitter of it all. This Anne Fontaine film keeps the color so wonderfully subdued, almost a sense of black and white, that the visual aspect is moodily effective and appropriate to its theme.