Miriam Besson is tired of living with Antoine, a security agent prone to domestic violence. The mother of Josephine, 18, and Julien, 11, she seeks a divorce and sole custody of the boy, whom she wants to protect from his father and his brutal outbursts. But the judge in charge of the case, considering that Antoine Besson's rights have been violated, granted Miriam only joint custody. From now on, Julien finds himself caught between his parents at war, and especially under the regular control of his father, loving but unpredictable and sometimes even terrifying.
A first feature film of unusual intensity. After an almost documentary beginning, which one would think was shot by Depardon (the truer than true hearing of a couple divorced by a judge), the film gradually switches to the psychological thriller (the meticulous study of the behavior of a father not devoid of love but aggressive, harassing and even violent as soon as he feels upset) to end in a high note : the last part of the movie is regular shocker all the more horrifying as it is masterfully directed by Xavier Legrand, excellent at alternating the unspoken, the silences inflated with threats and the explosions of savage violence. Thanks to him (some will say because of him) we are plunged head first into one of those family dramas that we just slide over in the media and made to feel in our flesh the absolute horror of such situations. The helmer is strongly supported by his three main performers, who live the situation rather than play it, the eruptive hulk Denis Ménochet (in his greatest role), the sensitive and stressed Léa Drucker and the fragile but valiant blond Thomas Gioria. "Jusqu'à la garde" is an unprecedented cross between documentary, French-style psychological drama and genre film à la Mario Bava or Dario Argento. Don't miss it... if you have the nerves!
A first feature film of unusual intensity. After an almost documentary beginning, which one would think was shot by Depardon (the truer than true hearing of a couple divorced by a judge), the film gradually switches to the psychological thriller (the meticulous study of the behavior of a father not devoid of love but aggressive, harassing and even violent as soon as he feels upset) to end in a high note : the last part of the movie is regular shocker all the more horrifying as it is masterfully directed by Xavier Legrand, excellent at alternating the unspoken, the silences inflated with threats and the explosions of savage violence. Thanks to him (some will say because of him) we are plunged head first into one of those family dramas that we just slide over in the media and made to feel in our flesh the absolute horror of such situations. The helmer is strongly supported by his three main performers, who live the situation rather than play it, the eruptive hulk Denis Ménochet (in his greatest role), the sensitive and stressed Léa Drucker and the fragile but valiant blond Thomas Gioria. "Jusqu'à la garde" is an unprecedented cross between documentary, French-style psychological drama and genre film à la Mario Bava or Dario Argento. Don't miss it... if you have the nerves!