As Good As It Gets

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Blistering performances.

This story may be incredible in contemporary France but it is based ontrue facts ,'the Fortin affair " ,and the father and his two sons were "on the run" from 1997 to 2009;for the record ,the "guilty" father was sentenced to two months imprisonment without remission.The father claimed that his sons were carefully taught but it seems that one of the children could barely read when their escape ended.In the short space of two years ,TWO movies were made :"La Belle Vie" which focused on the last months and gave perhaps a "too good to be true" vision of the story and was also handicapped by the "American" obsession of the director."Vie Sauvage" depicts the whole story and the mother is featured -in the first version she only appeared in a silent sequence at the end of the film-;the beginning and the ending ,very violent,are not unlike some of Ken Loach's works (such as "ladybird ladybird");the rest tries to describe ,in a realistic way ,a community life with "punks" (who ,actually ,look like the hippies who spawned a "return to nature" in French early seventies.) "Vie Sauvage " is less poetic,less dreamlike ,and more realistic than "La Belle Vie".The father is harder on his sons -which he was in real life,should we believe the reports on his trial-.Matthieu Kassovitz is a strong actor and his performance is more balanced:the viewer does not always side with him as we too often did with the goody-two-shoes of "La Belle Vie" who enjoyed fishing and campfires .The son's love affair is much less romantic too.The father took a rebel stand from the beginning:he could not stand the bourgeois life -his father was a doctor- ,compulsory school for children,the bright prospects , a corrupted society.But his philosophy is a bit selfish and he is not prepared to accept that his sons may rebel against him too .Try to see the two movies:it's interesting to compare them.

It could have been a Tony Gatlif film, although it is not a movie about gypsies. But it's a true, genuine story about freedom and an offbeat way of living. The storyline has already told it so I won't repeat it, but believe me this feature grabs you from the beginning to the end. Actors play here tremendously, as they would in actual life, as any real person would behave. It's also a story about love and impossible dreams, impossible achievements for a better life. Celine Salette is better than ever and so is Mathieu Kassovitz as the runaway father and his wayward kids. Such outcasts communities exist in the deep french countryside. I guess it was not released widely enough to have to be watched by large audiences. So shame.