Romeo and Juliette are a couple of young Parisian
bohemians whose eyes meet across a crowed nightclub and its love at first
sight. After a whirlwind romance
Juliette finds out she is pregnant and they are soon the very proud parents of
baby Adam.
Like all young couples they have difficulty adjusting
to having to care for a small baby particularly as Adam seems to be more
demanding than most. The first day he is
old enough to attend daycare Romeo stays and watches the child just to be sure
that to make sure that he is happy in his new surroundings but he starts to imagine
that Adam is not the same as the other children. The local pediatrician brushes them off with
with the simple excuse that he is just bloated but they instinctively feel that this is not
the case and so go back to consult with their first Doctor who had helped them cope when he was
first born.
She notices irregularity to his face and on the advice
of a colleague recommends that they see a child neurologist as a matter of some urgency. As Juliette is just about to start work in
Marseille they pull strings and manage to get an appointment the very next day
with a top specialist. And within 24
hours they learn that Adam has a brain tumor, which is operable, but then turns
out to be malignant, and the odds at survival lessen every time Adam does not
respond to the treatment.
Strangely enough this highly emotional drama that
keeps your heart in your mouth throughout, is not really a tearjerker. As the
prognosis for their son gets worse, the young couple draw on some inner
strength to devise a plan to get them all through this ordeal both physically
and mentally by resolving to be only positive.
Not just for themselves but for their immediate family who bring their
own needs to the unfolding drama. The
strength of Romeo and Juliette's loving relationship is tested and is the one
strong consistency throughout all the ups ad downs, and it therefore seemed somehow
incongruous that they actually separate before the story finishes.
Of course if I had been more attentive at the very
start of the film when we see a 10-year-old Adam undergoing an MRI, I would
have picked up on the fact that there would in fact be a happy outcome. But the very intelligent story told here is
not so such about mere survival but the real focus is on how they all pull through it in their own
ways and as a close-knit family.
The movie is obviously very much a personal labour of love for young Jérémie
Elkaïm + Valérie Donzelli who wrote and starred in it, with Ms.
Donzelli directing too. It is all based on a true story of a similar battle they faced with their own child in real life. Their collaboration resulted in the energy of this rather splendid and poignant movie.
It doesn't get a perfect score from me because asides
from the curve ball they threw in the story line, it also had the most irritating dark narration at times. However even I
would happily have let them keep it in if they ditched the song! Yes, just as the parents are missing each
other at one of the most difficult parts of the story, they actually sing! What is it that about this
French who insist on marring otherwise really good movie in this fashion? And maybe something got lost in the translation
of this song, because evidently they both sang that they liked each other’s knees! Please however don't let that put you off an otherwise
very fresh and vital movie which was in fact France's Official Entry for Best Foreign Language Oscar.
★★★★★★★★
