This simple type of "buddy" film story has been seen too many times before to be totally new and different to me, thus it did not grab and hold my interest and heart the same way it might have done for a young person seeing the story for the first time. And, as shown in the film, there is always a "first time".
That being said, the film was pleasant enough if not overly impressive, as it was mostly a gentle little story about a lonely, older Muslim storekeeper, with a vast storehouse of wisdom and life experiences, befriending an essentially orphaned 16 year old Jewish(more or less incidentally) boy in 1960 Paris, and the small slices of daily life in the teeming semi-ghetto they shared as the old man's wisdom and life's experience was gradually transferred to the next generation, as it always must be done. As the old man himself said, "if you want to learn something, don't read a book...talk to someone".
Shoplifting, hooker sex, a suicide, failed first love, an adoption, a buddy road trip, and the end...there you have it. Not a lot of weight here, but enjoyable enough. And, it must be for most as this story is filmed again and again through the years and this one was nearly as good as any. The story worked well enough for me until the final buddy road trip, where it all ended a bit too abruptly for my taste. Too much had been shared to end it all so quickly.
Seeing an older man/young boy story like this one unfolding, I might suspect an underlying pedophilia reason for the man's intense interest in the boy. What a pleasure to see that not develop here, knowing all too well the weird and sick story development of many of today's films that is often so disgusting to mature viewers.
Many thanks to the filmmaker for not taking that edgy "modern" track, and for keeping the film's overall sense of sweetness and loving paternalism intact to the end.
That being said, the film was pleasant enough if not overly impressive, as it was mostly a gentle little story about a lonely, older Muslim storekeeper, with a vast storehouse of wisdom and life experiences, befriending an essentially orphaned 16 year old Jewish(more or less incidentally) boy in 1960 Paris, and the small slices of daily life in the teeming semi-ghetto they shared as the old man's wisdom and life's experience was gradually transferred to the next generation, as it always must be done. As the old man himself said, "if you want to learn something, don't read a book...talk to someone".
Shoplifting, hooker sex, a suicide, failed first love, an adoption, a buddy road trip, and the end...there you have it. Not a lot of weight here, but enjoyable enough. And, it must be for most as this story is filmed again and again through the years and this one was nearly as good as any. The story worked well enough for me until the final buddy road trip, where it all ended a bit too abruptly for my taste. Too much had been shared to end it all so quickly.
Seeing an older man/young boy story like this one unfolding, I might suspect an underlying pedophilia reason for the man's intense interest in the boy. What a pleasure to see that not develop here, knowing all too well the weird and sick story development of many of today's films that is often so disgusting to mature viewers.
Many thanks to the filmmaker for not taking that edgy "modern" track, and for keeping the film's overall sense of sweetness and loving paternalism intact to the end.