Standing Tall

Emmanuelle Bercot's film about the hard work being performed by French social services to turn troubled youths into responsible adults falls midway between gritty docu-drama and earnest message movie. On one hand, this is essentially a procedural, demonstrating how the chief players in the system—dedicated juvenile magistrate Florence Blaque (Catherine Deneuve) and Yann (Benoît Magimel), a councilor assigned to her office—devote 10 years to the case of Malony, introduced as a 6-year-old troublemaker who his drug-addict mother cannot cope with, and growing into a volatile, reckless teen (Rod Paradot). This part of the film, marked by the boy's recurrent sessions in the judge's chambers and his periodic stints in juvenile facilities (and at one point in prison) when he veers out of control, feels authentic. But the sections portraying his ultimate reclamation from a downward spiral—as the result of a relationship that he develops with a young girl—come across as rather romanticized. Nonetheless, Standing Tall can be rightfully lauded for its serious purpose, as well as typically strong work from Deneuve and a fine debut by Paradot, who persuasively captures Malony's combination of sullen rage and underlying vulnerability. Recommended. (F. Swietek)