Perfectly adorable

Overrated and overhyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

For most directors a first film is a major event of their artistic lives. It can make or break many a career. French actor/director Jalil Lespert was not so lucky as a director when his first film '24 Mesures' turned out to be a colossal commercial as well as critical failure. It was so unpopular that not many viewers bothered even to think about it. It is nice to learn that he has not repeated old mistakes of the past in his latest film "Des Vents Contraires" which reveals itself as a more mature work. It concerns the impact which a married woman's disappearance has on her husband and children. Being an actor himself,Jalil Lespert has revealed himself as an actor's director by showing remarkable maturity especially in the manner he has handled leading actors. Apart from its insistence on an inquiry, two minor themes have been covered namely brother-brother relationship and getting used to life in a new surrounding. As an actor playing the part of a single father who is forced to look after his children Benoît Magimel is brilliant. He conveys the genuine angst of the person whose life is turned upside down when his wife disappears. His performance enable viewers to ascertain how and why things go wrong in a relationship to such a large extent that a partner is compelled to leave the household ?

Not a bad film, a bit drawn out and angsty, but with some nice moments and beautiful shots of beaches.A weird relationship springs up between the main character who, as a driving instructor rapes one of his pupils, but then strangely gets forgiven and that part of the subplot gets swallowed up by other things going on around it.I think what amazed me the most was that Audrey Tautou is given star billing and appears for about 10 minutes at the start and in a couple of minor scenes interspersed throughout. Not a bad film choice if you're feeling happy and want to be depressed.

There's a philosophical/moral question to be posed here: is it acceptable to lure potential viewers into an Art House movie by giving prominent billing to high-profile actresses who are on screen for barely ten-fifteen minutes each and share no scenes. I wouldn't cross the street to see Benoit Magimal if his co-stars were run-of-the-mill but show me the name Isabelle Carre and I'll make a real effort, throw in Audrey Tautao - who admittedly I can take or leave and it suddenly becomes a viable proposition. We learn from the first scene that Tautao and Magimal are a married couple with two small children. She is disenchanted because he leaves virtually all domestic chores to her (he's a writer) and she is holding down a job in a hospital where, as she tells him, children are dying. After five or ten minutes of squabbling she leaves for work and never returns. In the fullness of time Magimal quits Paris in favour of his childhood home on the Brittany coast where his brother runs a Driving School and gives him a job. At the school gate Magimal meets another father and turns a blind eye when the man kidnaps his son. This brings cop Isabelle Carre onto the scene but she appears for two minutes here, one minute there and whilst it would be logical for her and Magimal to form a relationship this never happens. I've always grouped Magimal with Romain Duris and Gaspar Ulliel, all three cocky, arrogant, full of themselves, ho-hum actors at best albeit clearly attractive to female viewers. Here he is, as always, quick to anger but to be fair he does make a half decent fist of the role. It's not something I'd go out of my way to see again but certainly watchable.

That's the second feature directed by Jalil Lespert. His first try was released in 2007 - I don't remember the title - and was also a very intense film, downbeat and depressing at the most.This second film is another good one, powerful drama, played by convincing actors. Benoit Magimel gives here an incredible performance as a writer, a novelist, whose the wife suddenly disappears, leaving him alone with their two kids and his despair. A touching, poignant movie that hits you to the heart. The ending is very close to another french film I commented three months ago: RIF.A real must.