Film Reviews

A Christmas Tale (Un Conte de Noel)

• Rating:
• Director: Arnaud Desplechin.
• Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Jean-Paul Roussillon.
• Details: France / 150mins (15A)

It might be an odd time to release a Christmas movie but A Christmas Tale isn't filled with the joys of the season. As the Vuillard family get ready for the holidays, they are hit with the news that matriarch Junon (Deneuve) has contracted bone cancer and needs a donor fast. The rest of her family - husband Abel (Roussillon), perpetually blue daughter Elizabeth (Consigny) and lively Ivan (Melvil Poupaud) – can't help with a bone marrow transfusion that may kill her anyway; the only match is Elizabeth's troubled son, Paull (Emile Berling), but he's too mentally unstable to cope with that kind of pressure. Returning home after being banished by his family is black sheep Henri (Amalric), who might be the only one who can help Junon. Over the course of a few days, the family find themselves under one roof for the first time in years and past indiscretions and secrets threaten to derail the reunion. After a lengthy intro depicting a back-story that could be a movie in its own right, this multi character story is knitted together by mini-flashbacks that keep the pace ticking over despite the overlong running time. The dialogue, not hip or cool, is natural and played out by believable characters that give the whole venture a realistic vibe. There are a couple of annoying facets, however: there is an awful amount of pretentiousness and that it warrants 2 ½ hours to tell this story is open to debate. If Desplechin fleshed out the introductory back-story, he'd have an epic mini-series on his hands and considering the episodic nature of his film, that might have been the best road to go down.

Review by Gavin Burke