The beginning of the movie is so strong that one thinks that the director will find it hard to sustain such brilliance .
Tom and Leo are brothers ,as thick as thieves ;but whereas the elder ,Leo, is a self-assured dude,Tom is still a teenager ,ill-at-ease in his world ,in spite of considerate parents ;one night , Leo urges his younger brother to come with him in one of his night ride .They have an accident.
Two years on. All that concerns the fateful night is left aside: after all ,it could be a nightmare ,as Tom wakes up for breakfast ; he meets his brother who gives him a bit of advice to get self-confidence .But bizarre clues are given to the viewer : he seems lost in the high school, he takes anti-depressants ;one fine morning,he goes for a jog in the forest with his dad who suddenly tells him " shall we call on your brother?"
It's the watershed of the film ; perhaps the revelation came too soon to produce an unexpected twist as in "the others" or " the sixth sense" ;but the relationship both boys have (and one never praises too much both Thomas Guy and Benjamin Voisin) make it all worthwhile and makes one forget the weaknesses: the movie verges on teenage affairs stuff and does not renew the genre . For one admirable sequence (mom and Tom in the brother's room ),there are ponderous moments (Tom stark naked in the high school corridor ,and no adult intervenes; the final violent scene in the park) .And one can find the very last pictures facile .
It's too bad that the role of the father (played by highly talented Laurent Lucas ) should not be more developed .And it's sometimes hard to believe that Leo's pieces of advices made a man of shy Tom ; one must note that it's after he rebels against his brother 's warnings that the teenager becomes "un vrai bonhomme" .
An only child often invents an imaginary friend; the main originality of the movie is that the mate is at once real and imaginary.
Tom and Leo are brothers ,as thick as thieves ;but whereas the elder ,Leo, is a self-assured dude,Tom is still a teenager ,ill-at-ease in his world ,in spite of considerate parents ;one night , Leo urges his younger brother to come with him in one of his night ride .They have an accident.
Two years on. All that concerns the fateful night is left aside: after all ,it could be a nightmare ,as Tom wakes up for breakfast ; he meets his brother who gives him a bit of advice to get self-confidence .But bizarre clues are given to the viewer : he seems lost in the high school, he takes anti-depressants ;one fine morning,he goes for a jog in the forest with his dad who suddenly tells him " shall we call on your brother?"
It's the watershed of the film ; perhaps the revelation came too soon to produce an unexpected twist as in "the others" or " the sixth sense" ;but the relationship both boys have (and one never praises too much both Thomas Guy and Benjamin Voisin) make it all worthwhile and makes one forget the weaknesses: the movie verges on teenage affairs stuff and does not renew the genre . For one admirable sequence (mom and Tom in the brother's room ),there are ponderous moments (Tom stark naked in the high school corridor ,and no adult intervenes; the final violent scene in the park) .And one can find the very last pictures facile .
It's too bad that the role of the father (played by highly talented Laurent Lucas ) should not be more developed .And it's sometimes hard to believe that Leo's pieces of advices made a man of shy Tom ; one must note that it's after he rebels against his brother 's warnings that the teenager becomes "un vrai bonhomme" .
An only child often invents an imaginary friend; the main originality of the movie is that the mate is at once real and imaginary.
