Autumn is the season for change. It’s also the time of reflection, an finish to the nice and cozy months, and preparation for the bitterness of winter. There may be an inherent name to reminisce whereas reminding ourselves of non-public and exterior atonement. The brand new François Ozon movie When Fall Is Coming offers an intimate examination of individuals’s lives and spotlights all their errors. On the similar time, it unfolds as a good however gripping thriller that plunges into the depths of contemplation. The movie takes cues partly as a thriller whereas strolling a high-quality line between drama and comedy. Tragedy is the defining trait that turns into this movie’s raison d’être. Provocative as a lot as it’s heartbreaking, the movie crafts a story of loyalties between household and associates.
Michelle (Hélène Vincent) is an getting old grandmother dwelling alone within the French countryside. She enjoys being within the firm of her buddy Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko) and her retirement. Nevertheless, her precedence is that of her household, significantly her grandson Lucas. Initially, she appears ahead to per week’s trip together with her grandson and daughter, Valerie (Ludivine Sagnier). Nevertheless, when she by chance serves her daughter poison mushrooms with lunch, the holiday abruptly ends, leaving Michelle dejected. As she sinks into despair and loneliness, she finds solace in Marie-Claude’s son Vincent (Pierre Lottin), who returns residence following a stint in jail.
The movie’s rigidity arises from the rift between mom and daughter. From the beginning, Valerie’s disengaged method to the holiday and her final meals poisoning result in a everlasting breach. She bars Michelle from seeing her grandson, furthering Michelle’s descent into loneliness. Her buddy Marie-Claude’s son, Vincent, turns into the story’s disruptor, coming into Michelle’s life and offering a wanted supply of consolation and companionship. Right here, the movie turns from a dramedy about dysfunction right into a thriller that, whereas by no means embracing all of the tropes, does develop into a surprisingly gripping story that shows a private reflection on life and dying.
I’ll keep away from full spoilers to protect the movie’s shock and suspense. A tragedy befalls Valerie, placing the household dynamic beneath the highlight—the strains between fact and fiction blur. This tragedy turns into the movie’s lynchpin, affecting all of the characters, particularly Michelle. As a mom with a strained relationship together with her daughter, she is damaged, and now this occasion remakes her. When Fall Is Coming finds a technique to keep away from spiraling into miserable territory. As described by his mom, Vincent strives to do proper however at all times does mistaken. His actions arrange the movie’s inside battle, which is as a lot about private decisions as it’s in regards to the choices made by others.
His relationship with Michelle will probably be a supply of the movie’s discourse; purposefully, issues are left ambiguous. The story works at greatest as a good thriller that by no means reveals sufficient, however as an alternative focuses on the reactions to those characters and the lives they select to steer. The weather of a thriller or perhaps a thriller are irrelevant right here. In that vein, many movies are in regards to the how and why; this story is in regards to the what, as in what occurs after.
The movie’s subject material is heavy, but it surely handles the drama with a light-weight comedic deftness. Its airiness retains it from changing into sappy and melancholy. Essentially the most vital issue for that is Hélène Vincent, who creates an inherently complicated character that by no means turns into overly dramatic or dispiriting. She seems like a dwelling portrait of a girl reckoning with a lifetime of choices and life’s unfolding trials. She partially dons a masks; we catch glimpses of her true self and are left questioning what’s a facade and what’s actuality.
It’s tough to advocate this movie outright, as some viewers could discover the shortage of coherent tone jarring. It unveils itself via shock turns, leaving a path of breadcrumbs that’s fairly stirring when seen in totality. The movie typically takes on a surreal high quality that adjustments just like the seasons. The arrival of autumn serves because the movie’s conclusion and thematic essence. It’s meant to capstone lives ending and lives starting.
The movie leaves many questions unanswered, which fuels the central thriller. There may be additionally a time leap on the movie’s finish, which is able to both make or break it for audiences, but it surely addresses a key theme of the story: change, each by way of seasons and in individuals’s lives. Autumn is a time for change, as are these characters, for the higher and detached.
When Fall Is Coming is at present enjoying in theaters courtesy of Music Field Movies.
