Customer Reviews
No fun here - By: Mam, 01 Mar 2005 
The title may well be misleading for there is precious little to smile about in this unique French film.
It is worth watching - & I think it has grown on me since I watched it!! The characterisation is good & most of the key players develop throughout the film as you try to decide not just 'whodunnit?' - but what it was that was 'done'?
A very strange movie. - By: Isabella Balkert, 21 Oct 2004 But worth seeing. The French have a trick or two in their film making, that you never find in American or English movies.
It is a silent thriller of the mind, & you are captivated by the strangeness of it.
Chilean masterpiece - By: , 17 Mar 2004 
Another masterpiece by Chilean director Raoul Ruiz, who also worked jointly on the screenplay. But one would expect nothing less from someone of his long-standing experience in the film business. Being set in Paris, I had expected to see traditional Parisian scenes a la Amelie. If this is what you’re after, you’ll be disappointed, as most of the action takes place in an elegant Parisian town house, a park & on a Barge (although you do glimpse the river Seine in these scenes). However, that does not detract from the cinematography which draws one, seemingly effortlessly, into the eeriness of the situation. The storyline is bizarre but somehow instantly believable. Nils Hugon plays a convincing Camille, a nine-year-old boy who announces to his mother on his birthday that he is in fact someone else’s son. His mother Ariane, brilliantly portrayed by Isabelle Huppert, goes along with this, believing that this out of character behaviour is some means of childhood rebellion, & to humour her son would be the best course of action. She agrees to accompany him to an address in an area of Paris she believes to be unknown to them both, only to be confronted on their arrival, with a mother & child reunion which sends her into instant panic. And so the story unfolds; Jeanne Balibar gives an outstanding performance as Isabellla, a single girl who two years previously had lost her own son in a tragic boating accident, & who now believes he has returned to her.
The cinematography makes clever use of the young boy’s obsession with his video camera, which eventuallly becomes a key factor in the outcome. But not before the characters of the leading ladies are exploited to their full potential. In a story reminiscent of the judgement of Solomon, both mothers fight to keep their son, pushed to the boundaries of sanity, & sometimes crossing over. And what do you know, the father is away on a business trip – where are they when you need them? This is one for a dreary Sunday afternoon. Shut out the world, put your feet up, unplug the phone, & you’ll soon be drawn into an uneasy fascination, somewhere between fantasy & reality. I guarantee the popcorn will remain untouched.
