Film Reviews

Betty Fisher and Other Stories

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As the title suggests, Betty Fisher and Other Stories is not a film with a conventional narrative. Based on Ruth Rendell's novel Tree of Hands, Miller's film is a treatise on motherhood. Sandrine Kilberlain plays the title character, Betty, a writer who has just returned to Paris with her young son, Joseph (Setborn). However, tragedy soon strikes the writer with the death of her son, and wracked by guilt, Betty decides to kidnap a young boy who reminds her of Joseph. Remarkably, the boy's mother, Carole (Seigner) doesn't seem too upset by this development, but others aren't quite so understanding.
A complex enough film, due primarily to the proliferation of characters, it is to Miller's eternal credit that he manages to etch out each as a separate and believable entity. Although very much a thriller, the film shamelessly flirts with dark humour (with no little success) and the actors are in excellent form. In the final quarter, things get slightly out of control, but ultimately Betty Fisher and Other Stories is an intellectually challenging and satisfying affair that rewards those with patience

Review by Garreth Murphy