A Better Life was a reasonable foreign drama, carried mostly by Guillaume Canet.I didn't really care for all the restaurant stuff, when the Nadia character was no longer present in the film it really picked up for me. There were two moments that I found to be of real quality. One was when Yann takes Slimane back to return the shoes he stole, Yann pays for doing the right thing and makes Slimane do laps with the shoes he wanted to steal so badly, the tension was tremendous. The other moment was when Yann decides to take action following the crooked men and the pulsating moment in which he strikes and then makes a run for it.

This movie is really dark and sad as this young family faces only despair and adversity. But for me it was in addition very painful and nostalgic as i met those characters for real. Indeed, Leila is the mirror of my Arabic friend who, like in the movie, was a single mother with kids. Thus, Slimane is the mirror of her youngest kid whose name is thus Ayoub. At first, i didn't like very much Yann as he was always pushy with Leila and especially Slimane. But his idealism, blind optimism and honesty was also positive for him. But he really changed when he has to conclude that playing by the rules in a such unfair world wasn't the right attitude. Strangely, he became closer with the kid and like me, he was happy to share simple moments with him that make best memories after and give life its meaning. Their fish party or the last scene with them riding in the snow was heartbreaking for me as Ayoub and me had the same laughs, especially a bus trip when the two of us fall asleep and the driver had to wake us up! So the movie poster with Yann and Leila isn't accurate as it's above all the story of Yann and Slimane.This movie shows also the true face of Paris, the one that looks like a poor country and the crazy life in France : for a country that boasts having invented human rights, the individual has no liberty and in each step you do, you have to face a blind administration that sees only the regulation and forgets to address the person.

Just saw this last night at the Seattle International Film Festival. None of the 4 of us knew much about it and we all enjoyed it immensely.Refreshingly bleak slice of life about folks on the slippery slope of life's troubles.Fantastic performances, particularly from the lead actor. I will certainly check out more of his work.The scenes with his young co-star are lovely, showing the best of a chosen family, even in the most desperate of times.I loved the time and space the director allowed for quiet character compositions.

Yann Laurent (brilliant performance by Guillaume Canet at his best) is working as a cook in a catering facility and aspires to get a better job as a chef in a restaurant. He meets Nadia, a young waitress, single mother of a 9.5 years old boy named Slimane. They fall in love; then during a day off near a lake, they encounter a closed mansion. With not much preparation, and lack of cash, they buy the place in the aim of opening their restaurant. What begins as a dram will turn out as a nightmare. After works being made to fix the place, authorities do not allow the opening for non compliance to regulations. The downward spiral begins, as they lied to the bank to get the loan (their initial cash was actually borrowed with high interest rates in many loans different companies). Nadia is offered by her boss to go work abroad in Canada. Shes asks Yann to keep her son for a supposedly short period of time, the time she sorts things out. But the situation for all characters seems to get worse and worse on the material level... Slimane's mother left, but he might have found a father... Overall, a film of quality, quite sad, but full of life. The harshness of times of crisis, when the poor people get desperate.