It's Not Me, I Swear! (2008) User Reviews

If you have to lie, do it clever!

[slabihoud · 8/10 · 20 October 2008]

First it reminded me of "Home Alone" although I never saw it. But the boy looks very alike and his pranks are quite annoying. But his talent for accidents in which he almost gets killed and some real suicidal attempts throughout the movie lead us quickly to the real story; the drama of children whose parents fight each other and finally separate. The separation from his mother who not only moves out but goes to Greece is for the 10 year old, as well as for his older brother, a traumatic experience. Leon reacts by breaking into neighboring houses to steal money for a ticket to Greece. He is soon joined by a neighboring girl named Lea of the same age who has similar experiences and a similar scheme. But Leon has to learn a lot about life and love and how to survive the pain in his heart. He lies a lot but later finds out that the grown-ups are also liars.

His antics, for example when he devastates the house of their neighbors while they are on vacation, are often hard to watch. On the other side his pure love for his mother and his care for Lea are very touching too. The film is in many aspects very radical and you never can be sure, if a funny moment will not turn into a tragic one soon. Good story!

Mental and Original!

[MikeyB1793 · 7/10 · 3 October 2010]

This is an original film and gets very high marks for the acting. All the child actors are very real and very intriguing. The main actor who plays Leon is actually extraordinary. The story-line is definitely demented and Leon obviously needs lots of therapy – actually he needs to be institutionalized! The interaction between the children is very well done, but this is not a children's movie.

There is really no resolution at the end, so Leon will just go on his merry way. This is the only weakness in the story that bothered me. Other than that it's got a lot going for it.

Watch this for the acting and the dry humour.

Quirky but Brilliant!

[bigdave11 · 10/10 · 16 February 2009]

This movie has just won the 'Silver Bear' award at the Berlin Film Festival in the 'Generation' section. The award is well deserved. The charismatic young lead actor who terrorises his neighbours and family carries the film on his slight shoulders. It is cleverly structured with laughter and tears throughout. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the characters well drawn. On a more serious note the film highlights the severe problems disturbed youngsters left to their own devices can have. Another reviewer compared it to 'Home Alone' but it is much deeper and (with a suicide attempt) far darker than the American comedy. Filmed in Canada with French dialogue it deserves to be seen by a much wider audience. Strongly recommended!

One of The Best

[Se7en14 · 10/10 · 22 September 2009]

There are rare time movies touch us, and feel so real, especially with Hollywood making us believe that everything can happen, no matter what. Enter "C'est pas moi je le jure". A french film about A family going through a divorce, and how the children are raised, with one parent looking after them. This movie not only spits in Hollywood's face, but does so with grace and Honor to be so real, so imaginative and so amazing.

Leon is ten years old. He is not normal as he tells us. He tries to commit suicide sometimes. other times he is vandalizing his neighbours houses, and he has a trait he picked up from his mom: He is an amazing liar. But Leon is not the only one who's abnormal, his family directly shows that as well. His mom and Dad fight constantly, until they finally divorce one another. The mother leaves for Greece leaving Leon's father to watch over Leon, and his older brother Jerome.

Once she leaves the family falls apart, Leon decides to go insane, emotionally wrecking everything in his way. You feel for Leon, how he acts without a mom, and how he feels, you get a true sense of his character, and how empty he feels without her. But Leon quickly finds solace with another girl for whom he falls far. Lea. She is almost exactly like Leon in every way, she is messed up, none of the kids want to play with her and she and Leon are made for one another.

The movie gives us so much character development and processes it rather amazingly over the 2 hours the film goes on, it's one of the few movies thus far to really get a connection with your characters. Leon and Lea are not perfect, they are down right evil, but there intentions are pure. Leon stealing from other peoples houses to get a ticket to fly to Greece to see his mother whom abandoned him. And Lea trying to find her father, who has been on a business trip for over 2 years. None of them are perfect but, you still feel for them, and get attached, hoping for the best.

By the end of the movie you smile knowing that, Leon has kept one thing for himself: Hope. That even though a lot has happened in his life he can change, and hope for the better, hope for a new change on himself, hope to one day see his mother once again.

The film has so much and without spoiling every little detail, this is one I recommend to buy, it's not a perfect film, there is no such word for a film, but it is unique, amazing and touching. A pure gem. And the acting is done so well so real, it puts to shame anything Hollywood has put together.

For the reviewer who stated that this film is like Home Alone, I ask this, when in home alone did his parents divorce, or he vandalize a whole house, or cut himself and lie to to keep an alibi, or even swear. This movie is nothing like Home alone this is a masterpiece and is no John Hughes family comedy, this would be the Coen brothers take on Home Alone if anything.

Rent it, Buy it. Do whatever you can to see this film you won't be disappointed.

A Nutshell Review: It's Not Me, I Swear!

[DICK STEEL · 10/10 · 9 January 2010]

Unless you're a saint, I'm sure you would have lied at one point in time when you're a kid, gotten away with it, and just became reaffirmed that hey, it's not so bad that you're not going to Hell immediately, and one could just come up with stories to spice things up, get others into trouble, or just get things done your way without paying heed to consequences that can be explained away. I never had such luck. Honest.

It's Not Me, I Swear! conjures up plenty in its tale of the neighbourhood rascal who terrorizes the residents in a quaint little town in 60s Montreal, and with his striped jersey that we see early on in the film, one cannot help but to associate him with another boy rascal in Dennis the Menace. But this is Leon (Antoine L'Ecuyer), a boy with a vivid imagination and a fearless heart, that when we first see him, he had unwittingly hung himself on a tree swing, needing his brother Jerome (Gabriel Maille) and mom Madeleine (Suzanne Clement) to bail him out of serious trouble.

And when all seemed under control, we slowly learn that this boy isn't quite always the helpless chap he is, but a real troublemaker who doesn't hesitate to show others his middle finger, whose impish grin betrays the scheming thoughts he has, to do things he wants to do his way, nevermind if it means stepping onto others complete with unbelievable anti-social behaviour (which adds to the fun of course), and you'd wonder how he manages to get away with it all. Then you realize that it's because of upbringing. Teach a child that lying is bad, but lying badly is worse. Tell a child that when one has to lie, one has to keep the story consistent. Leon's mom coaches him on such mantra, shows the same degree of disdain and disgust for her neighbours, and it's little wonder who his chief influence is. Parents out there, you have been warned.

It's the story of this street smart boy whose brain is fast to cook up stories, and whose misplaced courage allows him to fearlessly inflict bodily pain or inconvenience onto himself if the situation or his lies call for it. It's both comical and wince-inducing with situations you can both laugh and cry at the same time, and you'll feel for Leon even more when his family starts to crack and deepens in their dysfunctional behaviour, with the last straw being their mom walking out on the family. Chief influence and protector gone, Leon retreats further into himself (in some ways pining in a manner similarly seen in Danny Boyle's Millions), and his stunts become a lot more daring, until the narrative shifts gear to the other woman in his life, that of his neighbour Lea (Catherine Faucher), a peer whom we are not given much background on, other than a slew of suggestions and clues that she may be an abused kid.

Based upon the novel by Bruno Hebert, the film works because Antoine L'Ecuyer successfully carries the entire film on his shoulders, and makes it believable that he's such the rascal that he is, where on one hand he can look angelic to both his mom and his first love Lea, while on the other the devil as he leaves a trail of destruction as he goes about prodding into other's homes armed with a screwdriver, amongst other shenanigans. Curiously though, director Philippe Falardeau allowed Leon to break the fourth wall at least twice to engage the audience directly, and while you may have missed the first instance should you not pay attention, the second one felt like a bit of a cop out to achieve what we see in the finale, in what I felt had taken away the shine from an excellent build up of suspense and danger, which will guarantee that you grip your seat.

Winner at last year's Berlin International Film Festival, walking away with the Crystal Bear for Beat Feature Film (General Kplus category) and the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix, this is one film you should not miss during its limited run at Cinema Europa. Catch it before it goes away, and it waltzes early into my shortlist for one of the better films to be released this year so far. A definite recommendation!

Different taste film to watch

[serkantokhp · 9/10 · 4 January 2020]

Despite from the fact that I generally like the films in which childs are starred, I was very surprised and glad to have met this film. I think the rating and number of votes was extremely underrated. Both acting and directing/cinematography are great, also the soundtrack used on-site is very impressive.

Family always comes first and neighbours might never.

[Reno-Rangan · 9/10 · 27 June 2014]

Children movies are what I frequently pick to watch and that is how I ended here. This is somehow a similar kind of movie to 'Dennis the Menace'. Only the character wise, but there are plenty of differences illustrating a boy's nuisance and menace. Yeah, it was about a 9 year old boy and his strange and unexpected bahaviour. Don't think in a serious manner, I was saying kind of cute like the one from 'Le Petit Nicolas'.

Leon is not happy for their parents' everyday fights. He thinks he can stop it if some distracting thing happened them around. So decides to try with the dangerous game and make them to blame for it. But everything he attempted goes terribly wrong and one day he also loses his beloved one. Then is main focus turn to bring her back. While preparing for it, he falls in love for a neighbour girl. The mischievous boy with the series of unsuccessful event can turn everything back on track is what explained till the end.

''It's better not to lie, but it's worse to lie badly.''

This was the movie like I desired for. An interesting and playful character is what we expect most from a kid role in an entertaining movie. The story also conveys parental negligence over kids with unorthodox character. As the story set in the late 60s, the atmosphere was flawless and looked surreal. Everyone played well, father, mother, brother and so the girl. One of the unforgettable children's movies if you are a fan of this genre. I am not going to disclose how the story ends, but I will be happy if a sequel explains a few things, especially the romance. With the existing end and a beautiful dialogue before the credits roll up I don't know why I thought of a follow-up. Maybe I am so excited to see Leon again because he was so awesome.