I've sat through a couple of Desplechin-Bourdieu films (Esther Kahn, Comment je me suis dispute) that I've hated. Long, talky and pointless, I thought. But Un Conte is different; it carefully brings a family to life in all its complexity. The father is patient with those around him when he could easily be bitter and harsh: it is a superb performance by Jean Paul Roussillon. Catherine Deneuve as the mother glides through her part but we can't be critical because she gives the movie so much star power (just as Cary Grant did for four Hitchcock pictures).The children are very well acted. Henri will be a screw-up for the rest of his life but will win people's affection, certainly he did mine. Ivan's easy fatherhood skills and laissez-faire approach to his wife's infidelity are memorable. Elizabeth's attitude towards Henri is the most problematic thing in the film. We have to take it on faith that his behaviour has been so awful that she is justified in taking the action she does. Anne Consigny gives a moving performance as the sister with a grievance.

This is an extremely dysfunctional family. Everybody seems to be aware of their part in it and don't really care.The great engine is the alcoholic son, who provokes everyone. One tool is the fact that his mother's got cancer and he and his nephew are the only one who can save her. The alcoholic uses it for attacks on the family and not at least the mother. And the characters are forced to develop, not necessarily for the better.The humor keeps you interested in this chamber play and the 145 minutes never feel long. A quite French movie, but fully appreciable for all of us. A Christmas tale which is both dark and light.

After matriarch Junon is diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness her family comes together at Christmas in the hopes of putting things right.I've explained that badly, which is fine since I doubt there is any way I can truly do justice to this wonderful film about families, how they make us crazy, how they help us along and how life kind of gets in the way. I loved the way that about a half hour into the film I knew I was going to have to watch this again because I was simply enjoying it so much. Never mind that the film has a great deal going on that I simply didn't catch (Thank you IFC in Theaters on Demand for making it possible to do so with out breaking the bank). This is a magical movie its worth the effort to see.I have to say I love that Catherine Deneuve, a babe if there ever was (and is one) is married to Jean-Paul Roussillon, a small squat almost troll like man. You watch the two together and there is such love and ease and magic between them that the pairing is utterly perfect. Their pairing makes absolute sense, more than most romantic pairing that the movies have ever shown us. Its brilliant, and its just a small element of a film that gets adults and families right. To be certain its idealized in many ways but the film still feels wonderfully real.Its just a great film from top to bottom, with a great script, a great look (and sound) and a cast that is as good as it gets.See this film, it's one of the better films of the years and I can't stop talking about it.

This film promised a lot, so many beautiful and well playing actors but with a plot that had virtually NOTHING to say. So many potentially promising conflicts between the family members that could have been developed and elaborated but it was all dropped and not taken care of. There was no story to be told, just a show off of acting, technique, beautiful scenes - that were all EMPTY. But again, the acting was excellent so many of the individual scenes were entertaining, but as you became increasingly aware of the lack of underpinning ideas, even the acting lost its sense. So from the promising start you became increasingly disappointed as the non-story went along.