L?enfant d?en haut
3.5 stars out of five
Starring: Kacey Mottet Klein, L?a Seydoux, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson
Director: Ursula Meier
Duration: 97 minutes
Parental guidance: language.
Opens Friday, Nov. 16 in French at: Beaubien cinema.
Kids left to their own devices is a running theme in European cinema of late. The Dardenne brothers? Le gamin au v?lo and Bouli Lanners?s Les g?ants, both released in the past year, featured young protagonists fending for themselves while desperately longing for absentee parental figures.
French-Swiss director Ursula Meier provides a moving addition to this wave with L?enfant d?en haut, in which she captures not only the rascally ingenuity of a child with nothing to lose, but the latent emotional weight of feeling alone in the world.
Simon (the excellent Kacey Mottet Klein, who starred in Meier?s last film, Home) is a ragamuffin. The hard-nosed 12-year-old spends his days roaming the luxurious ski resort at the top of the hill, pilfering money, sandwiches, goggles, gloves and skis ? whatever he can get his hands on.
He is methodical, works quickly and makes a pretty penny selling his wares to kids from the housing project where he lives with his older sister, Louise (the lovely L?a Seydoux, brilliantly slumming it); his parents, he tells a friend, died in a car accident.
Louise is a lost cause. She dresses in tight clothes, can?t keep a boyfriend and can?t stay sober. Compared to her, Simon works hard. He gets annoyed at his sister?s lack of judgment (?What are you doing with that guy?? he asks), but gives her spending money anyway.
And yet, beneath his tough exterior is a boy in desperate need of affection. The look on his face when Louise abandons him on Christmas Day to go on an impromptu date says everything you need to know about the hurt beneath his cavalier exterior.
He seeks friendship, and possibly family, in a couple of people he meets at the resort. Mike (Martin Compston) is a cook in the restaurant who gives Simon a good scare, and Gillian Anderson plays a glamorous mom in whom he sees a potential saviour.
Meier weaves her narrative with precision. At first we are shocked by Simon?s rampant thievery; then we?re intrigued by his complex dynamic with his sister. A well-timed plot twist reveals new depth to their relationship.
Despite their annoyance ? and growing animosity ? toward each other, they are all they have. There are no easy answers in this surreptitiously disturbing, ultimately touching film.
Agn?s Godard?s powerful cinematography balances the idyllic slopes with the claustrophobic reality of Simon and Louise?s apartment, while lingering on the long gondola rides between the two worlds. John Parish?s understated soundtrack offers telling hints of the emotional wrangling going on beneath the surface.
Frequently portrayed as a time of innocence and freedom, childhood is as often a period of confusion and pain. With L?enfant d?en haut, Meier gives us a compelling picture of the latter reality, while showing that the two are not mutually exclusive.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter:@tchadunlevy
Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Movie+review+enfant+haut/7554122/story.html
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