The Grocer's Son (Le Fils de L'Epicier)
Directed by Eric Guirado.
Starring Nicolas Cazalé and Clotilde Hesme.
A French film directed by Eric Guirado, The Grocer's Son revolves around a son's home-coming and the resolution of a longstanding family feud. It treats the viewer to beautiful scenery of the French countryside and investigates some interesting issues, such as the impact of loss, the different roles siblings can take on within a family and how one doesn't share everything with their parents.
It is moody film, which is overly long, yet somehow quickly skirts around key plot points. Unfortunately, this made for generally dull, listless viewing, punctuated by funny or otherwise interesting moments, which were few and far between. I felt I could not relate to the main character Antoine (Cazalé) at all and found him rather annoying! Nevertheless, his friend/girlfriend (it's hard to tell at times) Claire (Hesme) had more depth and seems to be one of the happiest characters in the film.
This film reminded me a great deal of the relatively recent French film The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et Le Mulet, directed by Abdel Kechiche), another family drama that I also didn't enjoy much. Perhaps this is a new trend in French film — drawn out, dreary family dramas?
Sorry guys, but I can't speak too highly of this one and am only giving it 2 out of 5. It would have been only 1, if not for the lovely scenery and some of the quirky villagers.
Sarah Burton
