A very good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it did win the César of the Best movie of the year, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I was definitely impressed by the damned thing after all. The fact that I’m going myself right now through a really nasty divorce obviously amplified the impact this movie had on me. Anyway, I really enjoyed the realistic and subtle approach. Indeed, at first, it was fairly neutral and I was actually at first rooting for the father which I think is understandable considering the struggles I had to face during my own divorce proceedings. However, from the first moment Julien spent some time again with his father, the kid was acting so unhinged (by the way, the performance by Thomas Gioria was actually quite mind-blowing), it seemed obvious that something ominous might be actually going with this father. Eventually, Antoine turned out to be a major narcissist after all. The funny thing is that my wife very often accused me during our relationship and during our divorce to be a narcissist which was and still is some major bullsh*t. In this movie, you really get to see how an actual narcissist works. Basically, the guy was going through some major mood swings which were fairly unpredictable but he was still aware enough to be able to adapt his behavior in public so, for the general public, he might seem like a very nice and even warm guy. To be honest, the way it down spiraled during the final act felt slightly rushed so I think its movie which could have used 30 mins of extra running time. There was also the fact while every scene involving Julie was equally fascinating and heartbreaking to behold, the older sister was however barely developed though. Indeed, you barely get to see her and hear her thoughts and you wonder why they added a sub-plot about her pregnancy and about her seemingly suddenly making a run for it (it was seriously not clear what she was doing in her last scene). Anyway, it was all fairly half-baked, I’m afraid. Still, to conclude, in spite of these minor flaws, the damned thing was actually quite spellbinding to behold and it is definitely worth a look.