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Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Load of rubbish!!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

... who establishes himself yet again as one of world cinema's most intriguing contemporary directors. The cast is excellent and the story unfolds with an eerie, graceful and inexorable pull. Particularly fascinating is the innate childishness of brother and sister characters played by Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert - and to some extent by Jeanne Balibar and Denis Polydades. A creepy meta-thriller that also manages to make interesting comments on parenting and responsibility. On the Wellspring DVD there's also an insightful interview with director Raoul Ruiz, a bit opaque but not surprising given his filmography.

... and while you're about it save the plot. I am always going to see anything Isabelle Huppert does. She is far and away the finest French actress currently working and few international actresses can touch her but she does have a wilful side and in the last few years seems drawn to anything from off-the-wall (as here) to sleaze (Deux, The Piano Teacher) so fans don't have it easy and given her current track record we can only assume 8 Femmes was an aberration. This is a case of style over content, everything hinges on the unrealistic premise of Huppert saying 'okay' when she should have said 'get a life' as ninety nine mothers out of a hundred WOULD do in similar circumstances. It's not really enough to pepper the cast with certifiable nannys and neighbors because that only makes the SEMI intelligent viewer shout WHY. Why does Huppert continue to employ a nanny/au pair who declines to eat as one of the family and is constantly throwing dice which always turn up 7 and neglecting the nine year old when they are out together. Why, for that matter, does Huppert's brother, a psychiatrist, no less, become disturbed if anyone touches his toys (Huppert has inherited the family home, where she and her brother grew up, from her parents and the brother's toys are still stored there), given that Huppert has, by definition, lived in Paris all her life and that Paris is a very compact city, why is she TOTALLY unfamiliar with other arrondisiments other than the one in which she lives, why, when Huppert, a total stranger, calls on Jeanne Balibar only to find her out, does Balibar's neighbor, who has a key, cheerfully let this stranger into her neighbor's apartment (perhaps 'cheerfully' is the wrong word, given the neighbor's penchant for gloomy predictions. I could go on but you get the picture. As long as we're asking pertinent questions, why did Denis Podalydes, an established and respected actor, agree to what is little more than a cameo, and why, for that matter, even ask a well-known actor when an unknown would do. On the credit side Huppert is tremendous and Balibar not far behind but it's Class Acting that feels like an Acting Class and not a movie.

Ariane (Isabelle Huppert) mother of young Camille has a frustrating problem on her hands. Her son says that she is not his real mother and that his real mother lives in another part of town. Also he insists that Ariane take him to her. What has happened to parental control? Mother and son seek her out. Her name is Isabella ( Jean Balibar) and she had a son Paul the same age as Camille but he was lost in a drowning accident. From this moment on Isabella seems to take over insisting Camille is Paul and Camille insisting that she is his mother.It's very unlikely to happen in real life and the whole set-up is rather laughable. Things get worse when Isabella moves into Ariane's home to be near her so-called Paul. While there she tries to seduce Georges. "Why are you doing this?" he asks".....I need a father for my son" Because Isabella is so difficult to get rid of, family and friends suspect she could be a witch. Need I go on?The acting is excellent throughout. Huppert so gracious and serene, and Balibar well cast as the post-traumatic mother with her ever too ready smile. The dialogue is strange. Many sentences are unfinished. Many idea are not resolved. There is a vague feeling of inactivity and helplessness. The au pair is strange and loves to play the dice. The whole house is littered with busts of men and women so weird-looking in the shadowy light of evening. Great for atmosphere but surely difficult to live with. No wonder the household was a trifle mad.One scene tends to send shivers down one's back. It's when Isabella decides to re-enact the drowning of her son by dunking Camille off the side of the barge. She is completely crackers...quite pathetic really.Camille's favourite plaything is a video camera which he likes to poke into everybody's face. It is said the camera does not lie and in this case what is captured on video happens to resolve the situation.

Story about two women both trying to persuade a confused young boy that she is his real ‘mommy'. The viewer is only shown as much as the boy's actual mother throughout the film, leaving us as confused to the reality of the situation as she.Huppert gives a great understated performance as the real mother, desperately trying to hold on to her son, who's slipping out of her grasp, and the two child performances are fantastic.The underlying anxieties of the characters boil over every now and then into some slightly chilling scenes, with the complex storyline making even the minor characters interesting to watch (in an almost ‘film noir' style).The score seems slightly ‘over the top' at times but this just adds to the films strange sinister feel.7.5 out of 10