I've Loved You So Long [Blu-ray]

I think I'd call this a perfect gray day movie and I suggest seeing it with someone who's on your same wave length because, once it's over, you're going to want to talk about it and, perhaps, piece together the parts of the story that were merely alluded to.

Kristin Scott Thomas, in a quietly intense, brilliantly calibrated performance, plays a woman just freed after 15 years in prison for murder. Until she can establish a new life, she is to move in with the sister who never came to visit her in all those years and the sister's family--a worried husband, two young adopted daughters and the husband's father, a stroke victim who can no longer talk. Soon a parole officer who dreams of visiting the Orinoco and a university colleague of the sister, who once taught in a prison, assume key roles as well. All these characters, even the little kids, come off as exceptionally real and interesting people.

This is one of those movies that reveals itself slowly and stays with you for a long time. It plays on an emotional level that reminds me somewhat of "Under the Sand," the Charlotte Rampling movie about the woman whose husband went for a swim and was never seen again. (Odd, kind of, that both are French movies that star English actresses who've lived most of their adult lives in France.)

This is an excellent film. But, not just because it is smartly written, splendidly acted, and directed with just the right touch so as to make you feel as if you are watching life unfold in the lives of people who would be shocked to find you there, uninvited. It is also an excellent film because it takes up important subjects like forgiveness, healing, courage, and grace. It gets at the ironic beauty and pain of life without being heavy-handed and melodramatic. I went to see this film three times...as I don't speak French, I spent the first screening reading it. The second time I watched the sheer nakedness of the performances. The third time, I was able to catch the nuances of its visual storytelling. At no point in these screenings was I bored. Nor did I feel I was seeing the same moments repeated. This film deserves that kind of attention.

While I've never been such a Philistine as to decline to see a film because it is in an unknown language and I'd have to read the subtitles, there is usually a sense of emotional distance when you have to read the words yourself. In the case of I've Loved You So Long, I felt no such distance. Indeed, this is the first time I've cried in a movie since... I don't know when. Sure, I am a callous bastard, but I often find myself moved by a film, only, rarely do I find myself as moved as I was by this one.

I've Loved You So Long focuses on the story of Juliette Fontaine coming from prison to live with her sister, who was a young adolescent when she was incarcerated. The tensions of living with an extended family are exacerbated by Juliette's personality, which it is accepted is altered by her time in gaol. Philippe Claudel's story is beautifully structured to release just as much information as is necessary to keep you interested, while retaining just enough mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I have never seen a French film that I haven't liked, but I have also never seen a French film of this calibre. It is an outstanding piece of storytelling, full of pathos and charm.