Les enfants des autres

A rom-com à la française is still a rom-com, and this is a particularly poor one. Why it's currently being shown with the imprimatur of Film at Lincoln Center I cannot fathom. The film involves some talented performers, particulalrly Roschdy Zem. I'm even willing to believe that Virginie Efira, the protagonist, is in fact talented. But director Rebecca Zlotowski's obsession with her is carried to such a a discomforting extreme that 80% of the film (I may be exaggerating just a little) is made up of tight shots of her face striking different attitudes, without a lot of the kind of background or build-up that would justify most of them. And one of the more interesting plot lines - she's Jewish, he's named Ali and is thus presumptively Muslim - goes totally unexplored. You get a lot of performative Jewish observance, but nothing about his heritage, whatever it may be (the niceties of French republicanism allow this to pass without comment). Like his excessively cute daughter, Ali isn't a full- blown charcter, he's just a plot device. All the attention is on Efira'a character, her concern over what may be premature menopause, and her poorly backgrounded neuroses. None of which is developed to the point where this viewer, at least, was particularly interested. More romantic views of Paris are inserted than are justified, other than for marketing purposes - compare and contrast with the current and far better, more substantive Everything Went Fine, a film set in Paris in which there is not a single shot of the Eiffel Tower or any other hint of Paris la romantique, but that is rigorously set in the Paris that people actually live in.

To go one would be cruel, and pointless, like the film itself, which is a real dud. Good music score, though.

"Other People's Children" is a French drama exploring motherhood's complexities and family dynamics. The film follows Rachel, a high school teacher who falls in love with Ali, who is separated from his wife and has a young daughter. The movie starts with a romantic image of the Eiffel Tower at night, which sets the tone for the dreamy and idyllic opening moments. However, the film quickly delves into the bittersweet reality of the characters' lives, with unarticulated tensions and inconvenient desires.

The acting performances are outstanding, with Virginie Efira delivering a radiant and beautiful portrayal of Rachel. The film also features smart, self-aware, and complicated female characters, which is a refreshing change from the usual tropes. The direction is solid, and the cinematography is beautiful, capturing the essence of Paris and the characters' emotions.

Unfortunately, the lives of the supporting characters are not as well-developed as Rachel's, making them feel two-dimensional. And the story takes a conventional turn towards the end, diminishing its uniqueness.

"Other People's Children" is a heartfelt and modern love triangle exploring motherhood and family's joys and pains. The film sneaked up on me with a depth and complexity of feeling that resonated. While it has some flaws, it is still a solid movie worth watching.

This is a rather bland film. Everything goes relatively swimmingly for a long time and then, when things do get complicated, they are only ever so slightly complicated.

It feels like this is a distillation of the many films/stories in which a woman who desperately wants a baby, struggles to conceive in her late thirties. But in distilling all those other works, it lacks any unique flavour.

It doesn't feel like events are really happening to Rachel and Ali. It certainly doesn't seem like they really feel them. Things happen and they seem to shrug their shoulders and move on. Their lives just aren't interesting or stimulating enough for either them or us.

For a lot of people, women not being able to get pregnant falls into the category of first world problems. And I'll admit that I haven't given much thought to that scenario, having the luxury of 1.) being a man and 2.) having a wife who was able to easily conceive exactly when we decided to have children. So for someone like me, "Other People's Children" does a pretty good job of personalizing what it feels like for women who feel the child-bearing window of opportunity closing. It also explores how callous the world can feel to those women, and how much the world of parenthood is taken for granted by those who didn't struggle to enter it.

That said, this movie is missing something that would have made it really memorable. There's nothing wrong with it, but I see it fading into the background quickly, and I doubt I'll give it a second thought when I'm looking back at the movies I've seen this year. Virginie Efira gives a lovely performance (and reminded me at times so much of Stockard Channing), but her performance would be more memorable if the movie around her was stronger.

Grade: B.

Terribly heartfelt and poignant at expressing what it's like to want something that you cannot have. It goes on one step further to tell what it's like when everyone seems to be taking that for granted and seems to be getting that one thing easy.

Embodied through Virginie's character, the metaphor of not having a child symbolises much more in our daily lives, a longing for the mundane things that some of us just cannot have. The film leaves and open slate for us to fill with what those mundane things are that we see others get so easily that we seem to not be able to get.

The movie also tells us about how cyclical this process is and even how sometimes we never get those things but just stay watching what we want drift away as we look on sadly.