When Fall Is Coming is a French subtitled drama about a retiree whose hopes are thwarted by tragedy, but come alive again. Source: Australian Catholics.
Michelle Giraud (Vincent) is a loving grandmother, who is preparing to take her grandson Lucas (Erlos) on a summer holiday in France. Tragedy strikes when Michelle cooks a dish containing poisonous mushrooms that make her daughter Valerie (Sagnier) ill. Valerie heads back to Paris, taking Lucas away from Michelle.
The film plays out its plot in a pensive way and it raises questions about the criminal intent of its main character.
The movie contrasts Michelle’s life as a gentle, church-going grandmother with that of a dysfunctional woman who resents her adoring grandson being taken away from her.
The film is driven less by human perversity than by the cruelty of fate, but viewers are coaxed into wondering about secrets that the film reveals about Michelle’s past.
Director Francois Ozon shows Michelle wrestling with conflicting emotions that seemingly encompass guilt, defiance, and complacency.
The timeline of the movie spans months and years, and despite the title of the film, the weather doesn’t change.
Fall is always coming, but viewers are quickly made aware that it is the temperature of proceedings that radically alters.
In this movie, nobody is exactly who viewers think they might be in a drama essentially about moral contradictions that underlie appearances. The film cleverly unravels what could be lurking underneath seemingly innocuous behaviour, with enigmatic characters living in complicated existences.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media
When Fall Is Coming: Starring Helene Vincent, Garlan Erlos and Ludivine Sagnier. Directed by Francois Ozon, Rated M (Mature themes and coarse language). 103 min.
FULL REVIEW
When Fall Is Coming (Australian Catholics)
