hyped garbage

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Beautiful scenery, perfect casting, quality story-telling, and content that reflects beauty and meaning such that we hardly get to see anymore -- at least, not on the big screen. Or on the home screen.If you love good film, good company, and good values, don't miss treating yourself to this flick.And if you've forgotten what those could look like, well-blended together, go out of your way to be reminded.I don't think you will be disappointed.You may even find something stirring in you, that feels like Real Life once again, not the life we Americans have, for too long, been dished out via our values-free society.

The Well Digger's Daughter. There is something rather attractive about this simple predictable plot, but a bit more complex, quaint movie. You want to very much like it, but it's ultimately very disappointing. You try to adapt to the different morals that are claimed to be of a different time, then you realize there is nothing immoral, just no real moral core to grab on to. You seem to love the sweet quiet convent girl Patricia, and she grows on you as the movie progresses and her character develops. You begin to think by the end she is maybe the only true moral character in the lot and then very disappointingly she becomes as shallow as the rest. Say, like with Jacques, is he just played by a poor actor or is he as simple, shallow and pointless as he comes across. Then of course Pascal, the main character, appears complex, you try to read him as his character develops and progresses. You eventually realize he is a strange morality that all the plot wires do not connect. Simple, so watch it that way, if you look for more it falls apart. Ehhh!!

We were lucky enough to view this marvelous French film yesterday in Fremantle and both of us were touched by the simple story of boy meets girl; girl has his child but things turnout well in the end. The conflicting problems are the unspoken classism of France in those early WW I years that more obviously exist in England but are relatively unknown in France. Some negative commentators spoke from a Feminist perspective about the girl being only a cardboard figure without substance but from our point of view those considerations were unimportant given the beauty of the cinematography and the relative newness of the unfolding story (that is, how the various people played their roles at that time in French history.) We were not prepared to rubbish the film because of modern concerns; the actions of the characters all made sense to us and we considered them to be one example from a plethora of similar timeless actions. Perhaps the only fault that could be drawn was that the ending seemed rather more pat than reality would have allowed in those days.The actors played their roles beautifully and the nuances of the script were delightful in their unfolding. There were many insights (to me as a foreigner) into life at that time in France and as a result I am not prepared to make any negative comments about the story nor the script. We thought it was a beautiful film and well-worth the time and expense to see it.

I am totally satisfied with this choice. It's one of the best french movies from last year. It tells a wonderful story in the very nice Provence from South of France. It's about ethical family values for father Amoretti and his children. The dialogs have great quality and let me reflect from begin to the end. It was never boring because I felt lot of emotions with the plot. Then the performance and direction from Daniel Auteuil was one of the best I have seen so far. Congratulations to the author Marcel Pagnol for this novel. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey played very respectable the role of the daughter Amoretti. The young pilot didn't convince me because his character was portrayed here too clunky and his voice heard inappropriate. The film shows very nice pictures from this beautiful region. For all these reasons it deserves a solid 9/10. Don't miss it, you won't regret. I will add it to my best of DVD collection. Don't miss the great thriller 36 QUAI DES ORFÈVRES with Daniel Auteuil.