England's acting rose Kristin Scott Thomas gets another chance to show off her flawless French in this upscale family drama. Like the 2006 French language thriller Tell No One in which she starred, I've Loved You So Long brings arthouse style to a strong story to riveting effect.
Star rating ****
Dir: Philippe Claudel
With: Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein
England's acting rose Kristin Scott Thomas gets another chance to show off her flawless French in this upscale family drama. Like the 2006 French language thriller Tell No One in which she starred, I've Loved You So Long brings arthouse style to a strong story to riveting effect.
Scott Thomas plays Juliette, who has been reunited with her younger sister Lea (Elsa Zylberstein) after a 15-year gap. From the strain etched on the older woman's face it is plain that wherever she has been it was nowhere pleasant.
As well as looking very Gallic with her brunette bob, Scott Thomas appears genuinely exhausted, her skin stretched tight and paper pale across those aristocratic cheekbones. Add a wardrobe that shrieks frumpy, and it is clear the English Patient star is digging in for some serious acting honours (the film was duly lauded in Berlin).
Writer-director Philippe Claudel allows Juliette's story to percolate through at a steady rate. Most of the revelations are prompted by the curiosity of Lea's young daughter. Unlike the adults, she is not afraid to ask where aunt Juliette has been.
It's in the scenes with children that Scott Thomas excels.
Confronted by their honesty and innocence, the mask slips to reveal a bottomless sorrow within.
Claudel does well to keep his film's secrets for so long but he can't hold them for ever, and it becomes clear from the halfway mark how the story fits together. Claudel, a writer by trade, here making his directorial debut, takes far longer than he should before bringing matters to a full stop. When you have a leading lady on such superb form you can hardly blame him for wanting to linger.
