L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours)
Olivier Assayas, who made the fascinating (and underrated) demonlover (2002), analyzes the emotional angst that is the dividend of choosing between nostalgic attachment and financial gain, in this somewhat clinical but nevertheless engaging study of family dynamics.

The sudden passing of family matriarch Hélène (Edith Scob) sets her children to confrontation over the painful dissection and distribution of her home, personal belongings and the remainder of a valuable art collection previously owned by her late Uncle Paul.

Tension grows between the three grown-up siblings - the eldest Frédéric (Charles Berling), youngest Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) and succesful designer Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) as they begin to understand to what extent their respective lives have separated -  while each still has a place in their heart concerning their childhood and the house, their emotional (and financial) perpectives differ.

The performances lend an air of melancholy that never feels contrived - one has the impression that the overall point is that the ability to compromise, as each character inevitably must as the story progresses, is something of the best of human nature. A brave move from Assayas, who could easily have resorted to stereotypical 'They're all out for all they can get' characterizations, but instead offers a far more complex, involving take on how sentiment and memory are a very important part of the human condition. But to what extent should memory and place be made into a shrine?



The negative connotations of globalization/capitalism that pervade proceedings are a touch clumsy at times, with Renier's turn too cold for comfort, but Binoche is as charming as ever. The ending, meanwhile, is as satisfying as it is ironic and unexpected.
103 mins. In French.

The Life Before Her Eyes
Director Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog (2003)) takes an unnerving and challenging perspective concerning  the decisions that often must be made in the midst of horror, terror and emotion, and how such choices bring themselves to bear in later life, often causing irreparable damage.

In reality, it is now nine years since the terrible Columbine school shooting - in The Life before Her Eyes, two best friends find themselves in front of the gun of a high-school killer and are offered the choice as to who will live, and who will die.

Uma Thurman plays Diana, an emotionally harrowed woman forced to relive the nightmare 15 years on, while Evan Rachel Wood plays her younger self, a teenager forever making bad choices that contrast sharply with those of her 'most likely to succeed' friend (Eva Amurri) who always takes the straight, logical road.



The Life before Her Eyes uses startling stream-of-consciousness visuals that jump between the two periods at the drop of a hat, a turn of phrase or a disturbed memory - and the result is a contemplative, often moving meditation on the nature of future reality as compared with the dreams of youth. Teens' dream have an unfortunate way, frequently, of not coming true -  and guilt can be all-pervasive, particularly if one's direction is forever determined by one decision.

One that will stay with you.
90 mins.James Drew