Writer-director Louise Archambault's Canadian drama is one of the mere handful of films in which mentally-challenged protagonists are portrayed by actors with real-life developmental disabilities. The title character, 22-year-old Gabrielle Desrochers (Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) has Williams syndrome and lives in a group home, but is high-functioning enough to work a non-taxing office job and sing in a popular choir of similarly disabled vocalists. But Gabrielle is still severely emotionally reliant on her sister Sophie (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin), and two life crises bewilder and threaten to overwhelm her. First, put-upon Sophie finally reveals her intent to leave the country and join her lover teaching children in India. And, secondly, Gabrielle is being deliberately kept away from her boyfriend and choirmate, Martin (Alexandre Landry), whose mother fears—with reason—that the pair's relationship, left unguarded, will move from puppy love to sexual activity. Archambault does not resolve all of these conflicts in a nice little package, nor is she afraid to make her heroine reckless and prone to disastrous choices, but she takes the story here to a satisfying conclusion. French-Canadian singer-songwriter Robert Charlebois plays himself, further adding to the docu-dramatic realism in this often charming but also tough tale. Recommended. (C. Cassady)
Gabrielle
Entertainment One, 104 min., in French w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $24.98 Volume 30, Issue 1
Gabrielle
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