Overrated

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

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

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I grew up living in the country in the 1970's and have always had a penchant for films about people moving from the big city back to their rural roots, or about the close connections people develop when they rely on each other,because they are all they have to rely on. This film is about that,Like American films Doc Hollywood,or the period drama,Places in the Heart,or gentle romances like Baby Boom and Murphey's Romance,Local Hero and many others. Some set of circumstances brings the main character back to live in a small rural area and they grow to love and appreciate the local people and their close knit ways.This film also features beautiful scenery of the French Alp country,and it makes you wonder if there could be some way that you might be able to live there and make a living,but you expect that you couldn't, or many others would already be there. Still, this film is a pleasant escape from our urban existence for a few minutes.

Le fils de l'épicier/The Grocer's Son (Eric Guirado, 2007) traverses well-worn ground in an appealing way. Nicolas Cazalé is agreeably gruff as the titular character, the Prodigal Son returning to the family he left behind (You Can Count on Me, In My Father's Den), whose pastoral existence is in stark contrast with the hubbub of the metropolis (I Know Where I'm Going!, Local Hero, Doc Hollywood).Arriving with his almost-girlfriend, he takes on his ailing dad's rounds, finding both solace and frustration in the work. It's a bit erratic, with a couple of stretches that just consist of Cazale handing out food and an ending that's slightly rushed, but there are enough offbeat laughs and telling episodes to make it worthwhile. It's also a bit darker than you might expect, or at least more fraught.

Even from his earliest days, Antoine Sfouza has made it the goal of his life not to have anything to do with the family business. That's why, in his late teens, he left the town where he was born and raised and headed off to the big city in search of fame, fortune and a better life for himself. The problem is that now, at the ripe old age of thirty, Antoine finds himself an embittered ne'er-do-well loser, waiting tables in a sidewalk cafe and living in a dreary one-room flat in Paris, all but estranged from the family that raised him. But after his father is hospitalized with a heart attack, Antoine reluctantly returns to help his mother and brother run the grocery store, which, as a part of its service, operates a van that travels around the local countryside, selling goods in towns and villages too remote to have a fully stocked grocery store of their own. It becomes Antoine's job to drive and man the van, even though his gloomy demeanor and prickly personality don't make him exactly a prime candidate for such an assignment.Eric Guirado's "The Grocer's Son" might just as easily have been titled "The Grocer's Prodigal Son," since the movie is a fairly transparent update of that well-known story from the Bible. Yet, lucky for us, the screenplay by Guirado and Florence Vignon fleshes out the allegory with fully realized characters and the kind of family dynamics that can only be hinted at in a brief parable. In a carefully understated performance, Nicolas Cazale plays the brooding, almost completely unsmiling Antoine, who eventually comes to learn that a life spent cut off from the people around him is no life at all. The charming Clotilde Hesme co-stars as the free-spirited and independent 26-year-old college student who rooms and boards with the family and who becomes a major catalyst for change in the young man's life.This is a movie that sneaks up on you slowly and wins you over by degrees - until, in the last half hour or so, it becomes a lyrical, really quite beautiful tale of redemption and compassion, of accepting responsibility and finding one's place in the world. Add to the mix an array of sweet and winning performances by a tremendously gifted cast, a lilting musical score by Christophe Boutin (played mainly on guitar), and generous helpings of lovely French scenery rolling on by, and you have a truly touching and memorable film that will lift your spirits and, for a brief moment at least, make everything seem right with the world.

Talk about your dysfunctional families! The grocer's family gets the five-star award. Antoine is the subject of the film. He left home as a youth and has been pretty much disowned by his father who wanted him to stay in their small village and help him run his grocery. Antoine has not fared well as an adult. He has no work ethic whatsoever and bounces about from one dead end job to the next.It appears his only accomplishment as an adult is to have made a very good friend of a young woman named Claire. She entered a bad marriage early in life, got divorced, and is now working to be accepted to an academy in Spain. Now she has a work ethic as she labors all day and studies late into the night in her quest for higher education.The father is hospitalized, and Antoine begrudgingly visits after an estrangement of almost ten years. Antoine's brother, François is there and appears to have the same animosity for his brother as expressed by the father. François owns a hair salon and appears to be the picture of the successful family man.Antoine wants nothing to do with his family, but his mother begs him to come and run the family business while his father is ill. Antoine strikes a bargain with his mother that includes the opportunity for Claire to quit her job and allow her to devote full time to her studies, so she and Antoine move in above the store with his mother. The first surprise that comes to his mother is that Antoine and Claire do not share a room and that their relationship is platonic. Antoine's mother views this as an interesting insight into her son who, apparently, has always been incredibly self-centered.While the mother tends the store, it is Antoine's job to drive a large van equipped as a mini store to the neighboring villages. Most of the customers are elderly and have had long standing arrangements with the father as to payment, etc. Antoine proceeds to alienate just about everyone on the route with his rudeness and unwillingness to comply with the customs established by his father. Claire saves the day when she starts traveling the route with Antoine as she is friendly and compassionate. He learns from Claire and soon becomes more flexible and affable.Events occur, precipitated by Antoine's selfishness, that cause Claire to return to the city, and Antoine is left there with his mother to carry on as agreed. When Antoine's father returns from the hospital, he is still not able to go back to work. Once the father arrives, we get more insight as to why Antoine is so damaged.This film has superior acting, interesting characters, and beautiful scenery, but it often comes off as somewhat disjointed. I'm not sure if this is due to a weakness in script or editing, but there are, at times, actions that take place that make little sense considering the storyline. None-the-less, it is a good story with charming, insightful characters that creates a positive viewing experience.