Why so much hype?

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I'll save you two hours: the mother dies, the brother and sister move away and the main character sells the house. That literally captures everything that happens. This is a no-drama drama - there are no fistfights, no screaming, almost no conflict of any kind. There are a small number of subplots that suddenly materialize and then go absolutely nowhere. I can only recommend it for fans of that dizzying shaky hand-held camera cinematography that is unnecessarily employed in these type of arty films. At a loss to explain the glowing reviews of the outing. Maybe the sequel (call it "Autumn Hours") will offer a little more entertainment.

This is quite the solemn experience, much like Antonioni's "L'Avventura". A family gathers around the grand-mère of the family in the country, the keeper of artwork by a great, late artist. She keeps telling her children what should go where once she's gone, too. The family image is special, and the direction is sublime in the extreme; where my Hollywood sense of watching films is painfully blown-up, I felt that this film told it like it should be, in a way; it took me on a journey. I could not help but feel that part of it was filled with symbolism and free will, real characters and a sense of laissez-faire. The direction is so very simple, yet I think it's sleight of hand; it's probably really hard work behind this. All in all: beautiful.

Interesting, gentle sad (but not depressing) story of the inevitability of loss and chance.Three siblings decide whether to keep or sell their mother's country home and art collection after her death, exploring how we give 'things' meaning, and how that meaning changes due to context, generation, and what we need from them. But while the ideas are intriguing, and the acting good it never quite reached the deepest level of feeling or thoughtfulness for me. Called a masterpiece by a number of critics, and something close by others, I cant quite go there, but it is an intelligent, quietly moving experience, that I'll probably revisit yet again, since it grew on me on a second viewing.

An idyllic French country house and garden, summer, a family gathering with several generations eating and playing al fresco. The occasion - the mother's 75th birthday. Beautiful, elegant and stylish, Edith Scob masterfully manages to show us the vivacious and sophisticated woman she once was as well as the elderly widow she now is, facing her own mortality, without doing a thing except being there - the matriarch whose memories are her expression and her purpose. Her preoccupation is what will become of the house and its contents after her death? Her uncle, whom she adored, was a famous artist and his collection of furniture, glass and paintings, including two Corot's, have huge emotional value, as well as being valuable collectors items and museum pieces. Her three modern grown up children each have their own busy lives and only her eldest son, played by Charles Berling, has the time and nostalgia necessary to contemplate keeping the house and its content for future generations. A subtle lesson in how art and beauty outlive us all in this family tale of death and inheritance. There is no drama, no quarreling, just the unspoken sadness at the inevitability of one era ending and another beginning.The film was made in co-operation with the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre and the characters who come to the house to assess the contents are all real museum personnel. There is some fine acting from Juliette Binoche as the distracted slightly ruthless daughter, unusually blonde, and a poignant performance from Isabelle Sadoyan as the housekeeper, Eloise, whose involvement with the house over many years was such that she barely noticed the works of art as such, and has the healthiest attitude of all to precious objects.This is not just an enchanting glimpse into the lives of others but also a philosophical tale.