Featuring a fantastic ensemble cast led by Izïa Higelin, Jean-Pierre Daroussin and Noémie Lvovsky, the charming and deeply-affecting new family dramedy by Blandine Lenoir (Aurore, Annie’s Fire) follows a young woman’s efforts to reconnect to herself and her family during an unexpectedly eventful trip home.
When 35-year-old Juliette (Higelin, La Belle Saison), a children’s book illustrator, returns from Paris to her country village to spend some downtime with her loved ones, what she encounters is anything but low-key. Her harried elder sister Marylou (Sophie Guillemin, in a scene-stealing turn) is carrying on a “one-day-a-week" affair with a man from the costume shop; her grandmother is becoming frailer by the day, and her long-separated parents are feuding - he (Darroussin) is kind and wry but emotionally distant, she (Lvovsky) is wildly-revelling in the second act of her life as a free woman.
As buried memories, unspoken truths and long-held secrets stir to the surface, Juliette meets the lonely, similarly-aged Georges (Salif Cissé), who proves an unlikely companion and sounding board, as she grapples with how to both remain connected to the fractured family’s story, and reclaim her own identity.
Based on a graphic novel by Camille Jourdy (whose work also formed the basis for Julien Rappeneau’s equally-winning hit Rosalie Blum), Lenoir’s deft and playful film takes a gentle but insightful approach to bittersweet familial and romantic relationships, finding pathos and humour in even the worst behaviours of her richly captured protagonists. It’s a gem to be enjoyed and treasured.