David O'ConnellFather of My Children
August 23rd 2010 06:19
Mia Hansen-Love’s latest film, a moving portrait of family life in two parts – before and after a traumatic event - makes for grippingly real drama. Gregoire (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is a respected independent French film producer, still ardently fighting for the life of his few handpicked projects. Pressures are mounting daily but with a seemingly idyllic family life to fall back on, his problems don’t appear insurmountable. Yet fortune is a fickle beast and inexplicable events have the potential to turn lives upside down.
The glue that holds this family - and in a sense the film - together is the conviction of the tender love we see communicated between Gregoire and his wife and three daughters. The authenticity of Hansen-Love’s detailed, admirably unsentimental screenplay generates the empathy weighing heaviest on our hearts as the film’s second phase unfolds.
In particular, her writing shows great attention to detail early on in conveying the accumulating complications that consume every waking minute of Gregoire’s life. The combined pressures of his ailing, financially constricted productions are suffocating enough; contending with egos provides added weight serving to propel him towards a dangerous set of crossroads.
Equally impressive is the unflinchingly real depiction of loved ones having to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives - especially in dealing with those pedantic, unglamorous practicalities and complications that spring from the exposure of so many loose ends.
Helping immeasurably to ground this drama is the strength of the performances. Lencquesaing is magnificent as the devout father juggling duties, sinking into the mire of debt and creative indecision and yet never allowing his love for his wife and children to ebb under duress. (The character of Gregoire is inspired by producer Humbert Balsan who was the first producer involved with Hansen-Love’s 2007 debut, All is Forgiven).
Casting Lencquesaing’s real-life daughter Alice as his eldest child Clemence is a nice touch too, though there must have been confronting moments for her in that it may have felt like cutting a bit too close to the bone. She’s very solid support though for the younger children (Alice Gautier and Manelle Driss) and Chiara Caselli as Gregoire’s strong-willed, reactive wife.
It’s only in the final 20-30 minutes that Hansen-Love’s control might be accused of faltering. The narrative, having explored in minute and authentic detail the ramifications of trauma and upheaval, tends to wane and lose focus. Though some form of catharsis shouldn’t be considered mandatory to cap any film with a relatable emotional truth, Father of My Children (2009) does lack conciseness down the stretch and some of its expertly-crafted momentum is inevitably diminished, leading to a slightly weak and perfunctory resolution.
This is a minor quibble however because this is, for the most part, an impressive drama. It also provides emphatic confirmation of the growing positive reputation associated with the 29 year-old Hansen-Love who directs with the assurance of somebody with many more projects under her belt.
Father of My Children opens in Australia this Thursday, August 26.
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Comment by David O'Connell
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