Kristin Scott Thomas now splits her time and career between France and the rest of the world. This is the first French language film that I have seen her in and she is at her best. This is another small budget character drama but it unfolds more like a mystery. Thomas has just been released from prison after many years and moves in with her younger sister and family. The circumstances surrounding her imprisonment and her familial estrangement unfold over the stretch of the film brilliantly. Debut director and screenwriter Philippe Claudel actually writes mystery novels as his day job and handles the jump to film expertly. The film meditates on loss of varying types with virtually every character. Their disparate reactions and coping mechanisms are realistic and enlightened. Claudel earns the audiences empathy brilliantly and seems to falter only at the very end of the story with a reveal that is a little nonsensical and arguably unnecessary. I would expect this to make some yearend best lists and believe that an Academy Award nomination may be coming for Kristin Scott Thomas.
