La Vie Promise
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Movie Reviews of La Vie Promise
Movie Review: Pretty good emotional drama; too much plot for an art film
Summary: 3 Stars
This French film, called something else when released in that country, revolves around a prostitute that takes off with her teenage daughter to seek a reunion with her husband and the 8-year-old child they bore together. The pair then engage in an embroiled trip across France where they meet interesting people, managed to elude cops and others that get in their way, and elope into an emotional world of the current day, old and failed past events, and hope for the future.
While this sounds like it has all the trappings of both a Hollywood melodrama and a movie of the week, this film is far better than either of those prospects, mostly because of the fine acting by all the principals. Those principals revolve around French beauty and actress Isabelle Huppert, who plays the prostitute-mother.
The plot, which is too substantial for this to be considered an art film (which it mimics with its regular cutaways to quiet daydream sequences), has a plot with too much in it that could never happen.
Huppert and her daughter (who is a criminal) first escape her daughter's problem, then run around the French countryside like they are on vacation, staying at nice places, and meeting nice people. They fight, separate, are reunited and run into an escaped convict who drives nice cars, has a heart of gold, and apparently has lots of money to buy them clothes and support their travel stays. He eventually takes them to meet the hooker's husband.
What is most effective in this film are the interrelationships between the characters -- especially the mother and teenage daughter -- and the emotions these interactions generate. I felt authentic pathos for this couple during their journey, which was all the time fated to end either negatively or tragically. It really ends neither way but also can't be counted as a "good" ending.
The film is beautifully composed, well written (other than the contrived plot devices) and is very, very personal and emotional. People that want to escape into the lives of people down on their luck and looking for a prospect can buy, rent or borrow this film and get 100 percent return on their investment.
It is, in my opinion, a movie that delivers its promise and provides a lot of beauty during an hour and a half. It is not a great film, nor an art film, although it could have been both with a better plot. But it stands well on its own and is worth your time if you like this kind of thing.
Movie Review: Huppert shines as down-and-out prostitute
Summary: 3 Stars
Isabelle Huppert gives a superb performance as a pill-popping prostitute in "La Vie Promise," a slice-of-life, hard luck tale set on the highways and byways of rural France. Huppert is Sylvia, a hooker in Nice with a fourteen year old daughter named Laurence, whose existence the jaded streetwalker would prefer not to acknowledge even though Sylvia does give her money on a regular basis. One night, however, Laurence forces herself into her mother's life by stabbing to death the pimp who is thrashing Sylvia to within an inch of her life for some money she owes him. The two women hop aboard a train in an effort to disappear into the countryside. One night, Laurence runs away after the two of them have an argument. Much of the film's time is devoted to the mother and daughter's search for one another, often missing each other by a mere fraction of a second. Joshua is a man whom Sylvia and Laurence meet separately on the road and who, in his strangely quiet way, becomes instrumental in reconciling - both physically and psychologically - the estranged pair.
"La Vie Promise" has a simplicity of style and a purity of vision that keep it from becoming just another tale of a down-and-out prostitute or a tired generation gap drama. Sylvia is a complex character, a hurt and lost soul trying to come to grips with the mistakes she's made and hoping to rectify at least some of those mistakes in this crucial moment of her life. Huppert does a beautiful job conveying both the emotional turmoil and the latent nobility hidden within the recesses of her wounded psyche. The screenplay doesn't try to psychoanalyze the character completely, but allows her to retain much of the mystery and ambiguity that makes her, finally, interesting to the audience. The film does less well with Laurence who really isn't allowed a whole lot of psychological development throughout the story. As a result, young Maud Forget isn't given much opportunity to display her depth and scope as an actress. Pascal Greggory's Joshua is also kept enigmatic, but in his case the ambiguity works well in the context of the story.
The film has been beautifully photographed, and Oliver Dahan's direction contains many lyrical touches that turn the film into a compelling mood piece, employing nature as a prime element in its artistry. But it is Huppert's rich and many-layered performance that brings the film to life.
Movie Review: Okay Isabelle Huppert Road Movie/Maternal Melodrama
Summary: 3 Stars
This is not one of Isabelle Huppert's best movies but she's always interesting to watch and her great performance is the best thing about this movie and quite frankly the only thing that makes it watchable and worth recommending.
The film is essentially a road movie in which Sylvia, a prostitute, and Laurence, her estranged 14-year-old daughter, run away from Nice after the latter commits a crime to defend her mother. They head to find Sylvia's husband and son, which she abandoned three years before and erased from her memory. Along the way, they meet a friendly fugitive who helps them.
The cast is excellent and the scenery is pretty, though there's a heavy-handed use of flower symbolism and U.S. country songs. In short, I recommend it only for Isabelle Huppert's characteristically superb performance (thought be warned that, even though she's great, this is far from her best films).
Movie Review: So so what ... C'est la vie.
Summary: 3 Stars
I thought this movie was going to be interesting. Wrong ...
It did arouse the curiousity of the other person watching.
The director tried to take a hippy trippy view of this person's life.
I found it disconcerting & didn't care what happened to her.
I ended up leaving about halfway through to do the dishes.
There was no English subtitles even though I speak French.
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