This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a movie from the heart. Anyone who had a good father unable to openly express his love will see much of their own relationship reflected in the father/daughter dynamic portrayed. Perhaps more common to all, the film is a warm reminder about opening our hearts to those around us. This deeply touching story was well balanced with humor. I wholeheartedly recommend this film.Incidentaly, the soundtrack "Aurora" by A.Cohen made an outstanding contribution to the film's story telling. I notice it was not in the original soundtrack, which leads me to believe the soundtrack had been revised. Much for the better, though. Kudos!!

Mélanie Laurent seemed so fresh and charming in "Beginners" that we thought we'd give this one a try. Here she plays a character, Juliette, so hard-workingly quirky and self-absorbed that very little charm shows through; Michel Blanc is more appealing as Eli, her neglectful but repentant garmento father, but writer-director Jennifer Devoldère's Parisian version of Jewish humor seems pale and derivative compared to just about any of our own homegrown varieties (not sure why the subtitlist translated "schmuck" as "schwanz," btw). The comic fantasy aspects of the script seem too silly and contrived to bear any emotional weight; students of brand-name humor in the Eurozone may appreciate the feeble riffs on Starbucks vs. Illy, Crocks, Ebay and Dr. Dre, others not so much. Helpful suggestion—"Beginners" turns up on cable from time to time and is available from Netflix on Blu-ray and DVD.

The French film "Et soudain tout le monde me manque" (2011) was shown in the United States as "The Day I Saw Your Heart." It was co-written and directed by Jennifer Devoldère.This is a movie that is billed as a dramatic comedy, but it just didn't work for me at either level. Mélanie Laurent stars as Justine, the most beautiful and least responsible Xray technician in France. We are supposed to find it adorable when she takes multiple x-rays of a man to whom she's attracted, and then uses the images to produce x-ray art. (There actually is an art form that uses X-rays, but presumably not at the risk of radiation exposure to patients.)"She just broke up with her boyfriend, so she's sleeping on her sister's couch." Maybe the plot needed Justine to have no place to live, but the explanation is not funny or dramatic.Meanwhile, we are supposed to accept the plot device that Justine's father truly loves his children, but never took the time or made the effort to tell them so. Now he hangs out with all of Justine's former boyfriends. He makes a suggestion to his pregnant wife that is truly awful, and that ends up with him sleeping on the couch. (It's a couch-sleeping kind of family.)It's true that the family is Jewish, but I didn't feel that their Jewishness had any bearing on the plot. That's why I was surprised to find the film as part of a Jewish Film Festival. The festival booklet says the movie "charmed our entire screening committee." I guess it just didn't charm me.We saw the film at the Little Theatre in Rochester, as part of the fine Rochester Jewish Film Festival. (OK--we didn't like this one, but most of the movies were great.) It will work well on DVD, if you choose to see it. However, I would suggest that you'd do better with another, much better, French dramatic comedy, Paris-Manhattan (2012), also shown at the RJFF.

Just so im not misunderstood...i love french films. We rented this after reading the storyline which we found to be really interesting. A dad trying to understand his daughter by bonding with her ex's. However, this was just a simple story that failed to become an interesting or complete movie. It's like the writer had a fine idea that was not developed in any way. Whole chunks of the story are left out, it just seemed to be a jumble of short scenes that do not build on each other whatsoever. We never fully understand any of the leads reasoning or reactions. We don't ever understand why they interact the way they do. There is no point to anything. Why did the dad never send the postcards? All those ex- boyfriends at the funeral...where the hell where they for the rest of the hour and a half? At the end Justine says that boxer-boy was the only one who didn't play golf with her dad...what does that MEAN???? Holes in the script and plot are filled with emotional outbursts and a few good jokes. Simply a mediocre, fluffy, wannabe hip drama-comedy.