The story is quite simple: a 12-year-old boy abandoned by his father and the kindly woman who randomly meets him and becomes part of his life. The film is very, very good at exploring all of the sheer emotion involved in the above. You can feel the boy's unspeakable pain as he leaves no stone unturned to reconnect with his father, just to be rejected. You can see the motivations behind his horrible behavior and his despair. You see the whole spectrum here and no one is exactly as he seems. The father is a dead-beat who even briefly considers taking the stolen money from his kid. The drug dealer guy is horrible but also has a very unhappy life living with his grandparent. We see that Cyril's victims of his crime are far from perfect and even malicious. And then we have Samantha who selflessly upends her life and her relationship for this child. But instead of it being this happy-end story about the new family, we see that nothing is magical or perfect. We see a simple scene of Samantha and Cyril having a bike ride. Later he is almost killed by his own victim. The film ends with Cyril riding home broken, perhaps with a concussion. But he has matured to know that he should not fight back.
This is definitely one of those "so you think you have problems" type of films. It is a reminder to us all that sometimes we have little control over the tragic turns in life and we have to take the goodness and support where we can get it. No happy end, just a sense that things are the best they could be.
Great acting by the young actor and Cecile de France.
This is definitely one of those "so you think you have problems" type of films. It is a reminder to us all that sometimes we have little control over the tragic turns in life and we have to take the goodness and support where we can get it. No happy end, just a sense that things are the best they could be.
Great acting by the young actor and Cecile de France.