Actress-turned-writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve's award-winning French drama is full of the sort of talky scrutiny of marriage, adultery, divorce, and relationships for which Gallic cinema is renowned (or, for some extreme cynics, infamous). Esteemed thespian Isabelle Huppert plays Nathalie, a philosophy teacher and part-time book author/editor, who must adapt to a new normal after her busy Paris life is rocked by a series of personal and professional upheavals. These include the mental and physical decline of her aged mother (Edith Scob), a humiliating downsizing by her publisher, and the revelation that her husband—a stolid, fellow academic in philosophy, with whom she went through the storied student riots of 1968—is now seeing another, much younger woman. Still, the heroine keeps facing forward, adapting and redefining her transformed life into a kind of newfound liberation, minus excess rancor or self-pity. An intelligent adult drama with an appealing protagonist, this is recommended. (C. Cassady)
Things to Come
MPI, 102 min., in French w/English subtitles, PG-13, DVD: $24.98, Blu-ray: $29.98 Volume 32, Issue 5
Things to Come
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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