I've Loved You So Long
I've Loved You So Long is a pretty wrenching emotional experience at the cinema, highlighted by a brilliant performance by Kristin Scott Thomas. It's only after you've wiped away the tears that a few nagging details present themselves to you, and keep the film from being one of the best of the year.
As with The Visitor, another fine film from this year, I've Loved You So Long concerns a character who is reawakening. This time it is a woman, played by Thomas, who has been in prison for fifteen years. When we first see her she is almost in a trance, waiting in an airport to be picked up by her sister, Elsa Zylberstein. We learn that Zylberstein was a teenager when her sister went away, and it isn't long before we also learn that Thomas was in prison for murdering her six-year-old son.
Over the course of the film there is something of a mystery as to why she committed this deed, as well as her becoming acclimated to life on the outside. Her sister is a college professor who is married to a researcher, who is naturally reluctant to allow his murderous sister-in-law to live in his home. They have two small children, adopted Vietnamese girls. A colleague of Zylberstein's becomes attracted to Thomas, even after he learns her secret, and Thomas becomes friendly with her parole officer, who dreams of visiting the Orinoco River.
The savvy viewer will have figured out the reasons for Thomas' infanticide long before the film reveals it, and I won't ruin it here, but some problems arise. Basically Thomas, in an attempt to be selfless, has been tremendously selfish by offering no explanation at her trial. She has made her parents disown her, and her sister has resisted becoming pregnant because she worried about some kind of mental illness in the family. When all is revealed in the film's climax, Zylberstein should have throttled Thomas, demanding to know what she was thinking.
But this nagging question doesn't affect the fine acting on display. Zylberstein is excellent as the younger sister who idolized Thomas as a child, but then was brainwashed to forget her by her parents, and then reached out to her in a last-ditch effort to make them a family again. And Thomas is a cinch to get a Best Actress nomination. At first her performance is almost silent, with her eyes and facial expressions doing all the work, wearing a mask of despair. Gradually the mask is removed, and it's a pleasure to watch this fine actress allow her character to grow.
Aside from a few plot problems (and a scene of a country weekend of friends that looks like a beer commercial) I recommend this film highly.
As with The Visitor, another fine film from this year, I've Loved You So Long concerns a character who is reawakening. This time it is a woman, played by Thomas, who has been in prison for fifteen years. When we first see her she is almost in a trance, waiting in an airport to be picked up by her sister, Elsa Zylberstein. We learn that Zylberstein was a teenager when her sister went away, and it isn't long before we also learn that Thomas was in prison for murdering her six-year-old son.
Over the course of the film there is something of a mystery as to why she committed this deed, as well as her becoming acclimated to life on the outside. Her sister is a college professor who is married to a researcher, who is naturally reluctant to allow his murderous sister-in-law to live in his home. They have two small children, adopted Vietnamese girls. A colleague of Zylberstein's becomes attracted to Thomas, even after he learns her secret, and Thomas becomes friendly with her parole officer, who dreams of visiting the Orinoco River.
The savvy viewer will have figured out the reasons for Thomas' infanticide long before the film reveals it, and I won't ruin it here, but some problems arise. Basically Thomas, in an attempt to be selfless, has been tremendously selfish by offering no explanation at her trial. She has made her parents disown her, and her sister has resisted becoming pregnant because she worried about some kind of mental illness in the family. When all is revealed in the film's climax, Zylberstein should have throttled Thomas, demanding to know what she was thinking.
But this nagging question doesn't affect the fine acting on display. Zylberstein is excellent as the younger sister who idolized Thomas as a child, but then was brainwashed to forget her by her parents, and then reached out to her in a last-ditch effort to make them a family again. And Thomas is a cinch to get a Best Actress nomination. At first her performance is almost silent, with her eyes and facial expressions doing all the work, wearing a mask of despair. Gradually the mask is removed, and it's a pleasure to watch this fine actress allow her character to grow.
Aside from a few plot problems (and a scene of a country weekend of friends that looks like a beer commercial) I recommend this film highly.
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