A Christmas Tale
THIS is extremely long, very French and absolutely wonderful. Director Arnaud Desplechin has created a rich, heady stew of a movie that feels fresh and daring while encompassing the kind of universal home truths that we can all recognise.
The film is set in Roubaix in northern France, where a family gathers at the home of implacable matriarch Junon (Catherine Deneuve) and her husband Abel Vuillard (Jean-Paul Roussillon).
There is more pressure to be present this particular Christmas as Junon has a rare cancer. Her only chance of survival rests with a bone marrow transplant from a suitable donor.
A family member seems the obvious candidate but a state of harmony hardly prevails among a family whose façade of normality conceals old resentments and bitter regrets.
The biggest divide is between black-sheep son Henri (Mathieu Amalric from Quantum Of Solace) and his sister Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), a successful, self-righteous playwright.
As the rituals of Christmas are observed, the family edges closer towards a sense of understanding and acceptance in a picture that captures a sense of life's messy uncertainties and the way we sometimes hurt the ones we love the most.
(Cert 15; 150 mins)
ALLAN'S VERDICT: 4/5