Deftly, director Claude Miller and his excellent cast turn out a fairly fast-paced set of scenes of the lives of interconnected people faced with a crescendo of escalating trouble. With the English title of "Alias Betty," not an adequate translation from the French, the neighborhoods of Paris witness tragic loss, wistful grasping for hope and ludicrous scheming for ill-gotten gain.
Sandrine Fisher is "Betty," an author with a very successful (apparently first) novel about her life and marriage during a four-year sojourn in New York City. Returning to a just bought beautiful house in the outer Parisian suburbs, Betty - who makes it clear she's had it with New York's claustrophobic A-list social life - just wants peace and quiet for herself and her young son, Joseph. Immediately arrives her wacky mother, "Margot" (played very well by Nicole Garcia), in town for medical tests that she won't trust doctors to perform in Spain where she and her husband settled.
Mother-daughter conflict? Sure. Ranging back to Betty's youth? Yep. Familiar? Of course. Sandrine is very believable as a daughter with a vivid and deeply rooted love/hate relationship with mom. Mom may be worried about her health and want extensive medical tests but she's the kind of gal who'll outlive all the people she drives nuts. And she IS nuts too.
Hardly settled into her home, Betty gets hit with the unspeakable tragedy of an accident claiming her young son's life. If that isn't bad enough (and is anything worse than the loss of a child?), Margot thoughtfully picks up little Jose for Betty as a "replacement" for her lost boy. "Picks up?" Right, as in kidnapping. Jose is the child of a complex and wounded character, "Carole," (Mathilde Seigner), a woman battered as a child and available to as many men in a week as time will allow. Who is Jose's father is a big question mark and dominating concern for some but not for Carole who seems to write off the result of her prostitution as an inconvenience. Carole hovers between likability and repulsiveness. Mathilde Seigner invests her complex role with rapidly shifting emotions.
Anything more would constitute spoilers. Miller has given a fresh coat to the frequent cinema theme of casual interactions through the interconnectedness of the characters' lives as revealed by sharply etched encounters. Sandrine Kiberlain, a thin woman, whose shoulders carry the weight of the story, delivers a remarkably effective and nuanced performance.
The resolution is alternately amusing and messy but, overall, believable. A very good film.
7/10.
Sandrine Fisher is "Betty," an author with a very successful (apparently first) novel about her life and marriage during a four-year sojourn in New York City. Returning to a just bought beautiful house in the outer Parisian suburbs, Betty - who makes it clear she's had it with New York's claustrophobic A-list social life - just wants peace and quiet for herself and her young son, Joseph. Immediately arrives her wacky mother, "Margot" (played very well by Nicole Garcia), in town for medical tests that she won't trust doctors to perform in Spain where she and her husband settled.
Mother-daughter conflict? Sure. Ranging back to Betty's youth? Yep. Familiar? Of course. Sandrine is very believable as a daughter with a vivid and deeply rooted love/hate relationship with mom. Mom may be worried about her health and want extensive medical tests but she's the kind of gal who'll outlive all the people she drives nuts. And she IS nuts too.
Hardly settled into her home, Betty gets hit with the unspeakable tragedy of an accident claiming her young son's life. If that isn't bad enough (and is anything worse than the loss of a child?), Margot thoughtfully picks up little Jose for Betty as a "replacement" for her lost boy. "Picks up?" Right, as in kidnapping. Jose is the child of a complex and wounded character, "Carole," (Mathilde Seigner), a woman battered as a child and available to as many men in a week as time will allow. Who is Jose's father is a big question mark and dominating concern for some but not for Carole who seems to write off the result of her prostitution as an inconvenience. Carole hovers between likability and repulsiveness. Mathilde Seigner invests her complex role with rapidly shifting emotions.
Anything more would constitute spoilers. Miller has given a fresh coat to the frequent cinema theme of casual interactions through the interconnectedness of the characters' lives as revealed by sharply etched encounters. Sandrine Kiberlain, a thin woman, whose shoulders carry the weight of the story, delivers a remarkably effective and nuanced performance.
The resolution is alternately amusing and messy but, overall, believable. A very good film.
7/10.