Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Safy Nebbou.
Cast: Catherine Frot, Sandrine Bonnaire, Wladimir Yordanoff, Antoine Chappey, Michel Aumont, Michele Moretti
Description: Hitchcockian thriller about a suburban mother who develops a strange obsession. Elsa has been abandoned by her husband and the couple are now embroiled in a messy custory battle for their son Thomas. Familial tensions intensify when Elsa accompanies her boy to a party and glimpses seven-year-old, Lola. She is transfixed by the child and Elsa sets about worming her way into the life of Lola's mother, wealthy housewife Claire, all the while harbouring a chilling secret.
Country: FR. 2008. 95mins
Mystery girl : Elsa (Catherine Frot) thinks she has found her lost daughter
That children are fragile is one of the obsessions of our age. That these creatures are in constant danger and therefore in need of constant protection (helped by 4x4 cars, electric gates and mothers with eyes in the backs of their heads) is also a moot point.
Safy Nebbou, the director of this fabulous French thriller, both encourages, and toys with, such paranoia. His wry message, in a nutshell: You don’t have to be mad to be a mum, but it helps.
The superlative Catherine Frot (last seen by English audiences in The Page Turner) plays Elsa, a knackered-looking shop-worker, embroiled in an unpleasant divorce. She won’t let her husband have custody of their 10 year old son, Antoine (Antoine Chappey); he’s prepared to use her “unstable” past as a weapon in court. One day she goes to pick up Antoine from a party and is left breathless by the sight of a pretty blonde girl. Her son says she’s the sister of his new best friend (an obviously wealthy kid called Jeremie) and Elsa orchestrates a playdate between the boys, then finds more pretexts to get closer to the girl, Lola (excellent little actress, Heloise Cunin).
Elsa, it turns out, believes that Lola is her long-lost daughter and her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, arousing the suspicions of Lola’s yummy mummy (the reliably steely Sandrine Bonnaire). We see virtually everything from Elsa’s point of view and her vulnerability is palpable. The simple fact that she’s a single mum makes her grossly aberrant in Lola’s picture-perfect world. Yet we can’t help but feel for Lola as well. Her eyes come to resemble huge pools of fear.
Films like this - taut, expertly paced - are invariably dubbed Hitchcockian, but Hitch would never have allowed a female like Elsa to dominate his frame.
He’d have loved Frot’s cat-like face but given her a minor part - as a bitter mother-in-law, say, or a spooky spinster. Nebbou owes more to Douglas Sirk or Michael Curtiz: men happy to dwell on aging timebombs.
Elsa’s contemporary soul sisters include Anne Hathaway’s Kym in Rachel Getting Married and Tilda Swinton’s Julia. Both of those women, if you remember, flail on the dance floor to show they’re capable of having a good time. But a drunken Elsa outdoes them. Her almost-glorious moves (at her friend’s wedding bash) are a spectacular assault on natural rhythm. She’s like a malfunctioning robot and we can all but see the sparks fly.
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The film’s surprise ending marks Nebbou’s only mis-step. While infinitely better than the implausible climax to I’ve Loved You So Long (last year’s “big” French movie), it still feels like a let-down. The narrative’s frazzled threads are tied up, it seems, within seconds. Couldn’t we have lingered longer on the details of Elsa’s extraordinary fate?
Then again, perhaps the problem is that Elsa herself is too arresting. We get a little obsessed with her; the abrupt ending is painful because it ruptures our bond. Who knows - it may be necessary for fans of this film to stalk Nebbou and demand a sequel.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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