I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive

In father-and-son directors Claude and Nathan Miller's true-story-inspired film, 12-year-old Thomas (Maxime Renard) lives with middle-class couple Yves and Annie Jouvet (Yves Verhoeven, Christine Citti) but constantly thinks about his working-class mother, Julie (Sophie Cattani), who walked out on him when he was 5. Flashbacks reveal that Julie was no prize, having lost Thomas and his brother, Patrick (whom the Jouvets have renamed François), because of immaturity and gross neglect. When angry and troublesome Thomas becomes unmanageable, the Jouvets send him to boarding school, where he manages to secure the name and address of the woman who abandoned him. Discovering that she's started a new family, Thomas decides not to reconnect with her; but eight years later, he does visit Julie, who has since divorced. Although still living at home, Thomas (now played by Vincent Rottiers) works as a mechanic, while Julie is employed as a cleaning woman. Thomas attempts to insinuate himself into her life and that of her young child, Frédéric (Quentin Gonzalez), alternating between playing son to Julie (although sometimes coming across more like a suitor) and father figure to Frédéric. All of this plays out in a straightforward if tense manner, before building to a big satisfying finish. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)