Ponette is the story of a young French girl (4 years old) who's mother suddenly dies. It's a tough situation to explain to someone this young what exactly that means, and even more so when it's someone so close to them. The father, unsure of how to explain to Ponette that her mom is in fact, not coming back, and unable to convince her that the visions she keeps having of her mother being around every now and then, he sends her away for a while to live with friends and to cope with her loss as best as the adults and young friends around her can help her do.
Victoire Thivisol, as the young Ponette, does a great job. I hadn't thought about it before that, as another view points out, this was not the fake sorrow of an actress with glycerine tears and such, all of the performance was real. And, although the story is interesting in that you see how a young kid might actually react to the death of someone they know and love, and how others might help them to cope with that, I was annoyed that about three quarters of the movie was Ponette crying over one thing or another. I suppose this is quite unsympathetic on my part to think that, damn, this kid is crying again? In all, I say that this film is for an audience that particularly enjoys its emotional dramas. Ponette has a lot to offer there. For others, the story may become either repetitive or just altogether dull to sit through, as at least one viewer has already expressed.
Victoire Thivisol, as the young Ponette, does a great job. I hadn't thought about it before that, as another view points out, this was not the fake sorrow of an actress with glycerine tears and such, all of the performance was real. And, although the story is interesting in that you see how a young kid might actually react to the death of someone they know and love, and how others might help them to cope with that, I was annoyed that about three quarters of the movie was Ponette crying over one thing or another. I suppose this is quite unsympathetic on my part to think that, damn, this kid is crying again? In all, I say that this film is for an audience that particularly enjoys its emotional dramas. Ponette has a lot to offer there. For others, the story may become either repetitive or just altogether dull to sit through, as at least one viewer has already expressed.