JeromeArlettaz

One more a light comedy about a profound subject. If it had been somewhat more realistic, it would not have been a comedy. I've fostered a teenage boy, who's been in the system for a while, with an absent drug addicted mother. The plot is similar, but I haven't found in this movie any of the problems I've faced. Parent's addiction and the foster system are causing major psychological troubles to growing kids: they grow up without love, build no self estime and have to find their way among other broken kids. Most of them suffer from anger, depression or worse. And like many others, he had two major trauma: when the mother promised him she will quit drugs to take care of him by love, followed by a relapse showing she love drugs more than her son. And when the cops came to brutally take him away from her, from everything he loved, from his room, his toys, his friends, his school. He was eight at that time and was sent to what he considered to be a jail with crazy inmates and prison guards paid to pretend to care about him. We had good times, but much more dramatic situations. How do you react when a 15 years old tells you he wants to die? When you find heavy drugs in his room? When the cops are looking for him for having set a bus on fire? When he quits every school or job he starts? When he refuses to see a doctor being very sick? When his jealous former "friends" are waiting in front of your door to beat him? When he refuses to leave his room for days? Or when he does not come back home for days? When all he cares about is the next joint? It broke my couple in a coupe of years. Finding myself as an old guy alone with a kid, the only concern of the authorities was to regularly spy on me to check if I wasn't some kind pervert. I got absolutely no support for any the problems listed, not even someone I could talk to for guidance. This happened in Switzerland; maybe it's better in less primitive countries where human values take precedence over financial interests. I don't know... The movie's right on some points: There's been a lot of love, laughs and bad words. I had to swear to get his attention, although I usually don't. For him, it was as if words had no weight unless they were transgressive. Kids in the system hear so many false promesses and deception with sweet words, that they prefer straight talk with bad words. And the love made everything more dramatic. I couldn't be indifferent and tell myself nothing was my fault. You end up asking yourself: how will I handle the guilt of failing his education, knowing that I'm his guardian, but that most of the damage was done before I knew him? These are the questions I had to answer and that the movie eluded, depicting a common family with the issues of spoiled crisply kids. I'm not rating this movie on its cinematographic quality, as I usually do, I'm rating its ambigus message. So here's my message to mothers watching this movie, intending to abandon a kid, arguing that a better family will take better care: It's not ok! Your kid will be depraved of the most vital element: a mother's love. If you really have no other choice, remind him as often as you can that you love him and that you had no other choice, even when he's grown up. Because, as soon as abandoned, even in the best foster family, receiving the best education and the best explanation for what happened (your mother was sick), deep inside of him, these awful words will be forever engraved: "I'm not loveable enough to deserve even a mother's love!"

As I do with all Marvel stuff, I've loaded it onto the tablet I keep in the bathroom. The scenes are perfectly cut for some minutes in there. And it doesn't matter if you don't remember your last visit after a day or two, there's no correlation. Wether it's shapeless, explosive, dripping, ludicrous or misleading, it always ends with the feeling that there could have been more. But even if you try harder for another minute, there's only void. And as soon as you stand up, the whole stuff is flushed out of our memory. Only persists a reminiscence of nauseating miasma. Mankind seems to enjoy it. Well in that case, I've got a be an alien. I've decided to quit eating any fibre to never have to endure it again.

Young people's most common drama is also the less talked about.

This movie talks about a teenagers who "wants to leave" with a sensitive and dark sense of humour (As the movie does not say the word, I won't say it either). It talks about different aspects of death without falling into the maudlin and compassionate trap. I guess there's no other way to do it. The common Hollywood way would have insisted on an initial trauma and there would have been a lot of tears. It would have found a justification for the "departure". And it is well known that a fiction representing a tearful and motivated "departure" can cause epidemic "departures". In this movie, things are as they are with no motive, as it frequently is in real life. In contrast with the sensitive and slightly distant beginning, the movie shows an accident in a very harsh way.

I like the important rhythm breaks emphasizing the slow contemplative scenes, as well as dynamic ones. The filming is very clean, sometimes uncommon and in good coherence with the narrative and sound track. The young actor has a promising carrier. I was afraid he might be stuck in the same attitude for the whole movie, but at the end, he shows a wide palette of reactions.

If you're concerned about showing this movie to teenager, I would probably let him watch it if he's not too stupid and accompanied. I'm not the type of guys prohibiting movies to kids, but in this case, you want to avoid misinterpretations and a trivialization of death.