.. with a bit of everything thrown in. The characters are all somewhat exagerated of course but this is cinema. Though many comments say the husband is absurd, he is simply a compression of many typical events into a shorter span of time (actually, the recovery in hospital takes a month, so the speed of his unravelling is not so unlikely). And nothing really suprising about the son too, not if you've been paying attention to your teen peers at college and visited France recently. So, though there is definately a touch of caricature at work it works well. Noemi is also exagerated, especially the Swiss activities and the flamethrower effect, but this is a film right? Not nearly as exagerated as your typical Hollywood thriller.
On the whole the pace moves well, the story builds about right, the comedic touch lightens up a dark plot, you wonder how it will get resolved, and at the end you see the resolution is not going to hold together. Notice the only obliviously happy smile was the final frame of the film, the other three sitting on the bench are not at all finished (nice acting throughout, by the way). And for that matter the husband and son may have even come out of the wringer with some improvements. I enjoyed it.
On DVD, color was good, imagery at times blurred by panning, sound quality ok and unmemorable. Occasional interludes of gorgeous scenery or cityscapes.
You can bet Hollywood will pick up this script and remake it. Except of course they won't dare touch the social commentary about the Algerian family, she'll be a nice kid from clueless suburbs in the remake. And they'll doubtless make the sex and violence more explicit.
On the whole the pace moves well, the story builds about right, the comedic touch lightens up a dark plot, you wonder how it will get resolved, and at the end you see the resolution is not going to hold together. Notice the only obliviously happy smile was the final frame of the film, the other three sitting on the bench are not at all finished (nice acting throughout, by the way). And for that matter the husband and son may have even come out of the wringer with some improvements. I enjoyed it.
On DVD, color was good, imagery at times blurred by panning, sound quality ok and unmemorable. Occasional interludes of gorgeous scenery or cityscapes.
You can bet Hollywood will pick up this script and remake it. Except of course they won't dare touch the social commentary about the Algerian family, she'll be a nice kid from clueless suburbs in the remake. And they'll doubtless make the sex and violence more explicit.