Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for
disturbing themes
Run
Time: 1
hour, 55 minutes. In English with French subtitles
Kristin
Scott Thomas delivers gold in this moody French classic.
Scott
Thomas is Juliette, newly arrived at her sister Léa’s home (Elsa Zylberstein)
from a place we mustn’t discuss. Her brother-in-law isn’t pleased, resisting
the emotional warp and woof of his wife’s family crises.
Little by
little the disquieting details are revealed – Juliette has spent the last fifteen
years in prison on a murder charge. Who did she murder and why did she do it?
The undercurrent of tragedy is probing and persistent.
The essence
of writer/director Philippe Claudel’s understated drama is the unspoken –
resentment, fear and a fierce desire to make amends. Juliette is out of her
element, struggling mightily to find her place in a world that has rejected her
for all the right reasons. It’s a painstaking process – rebuilding sibling
bonds, strumming the ancient stirrings of desire (with Léa’s co-worker) and fighting
to forget forget forget.
To say that
Scott Thomas is a revelation is an understatement – every wisp of heartache is
etched onto her careworn but glorious face. She inherits Juliette’s emotional
isolation with aloof appeal, significant in its lilting crescendos of hope and
despair.
Newcomer
Claudel draws out the dramatic elements with great poise, ardently wedded to
his central character’s pride and caressing her with the professional affection
of a director with ten times the experience.
The
climatic disclosure, when it comes, is a moving one. All in all a haunting and
redemptive film experience.