L'échappée belle

Sometimes, I wish certain films could remain unseen by anyone but me. People's comments about those films often upset me. There are dozens of films, songs, and books I feel this way about. Let them stay mine, known only to me, free from anyone else's opinions.

Eva and Léon's story is one of those. They stand at the very heart of life, yet prefer to watch the world through a telescope. Though loved by those around them, they can't seem to fill the emptiness inside. And yet, a cone of ice cream, butterflies, or strawberries are enough to make them happy.

True, the screenplay isn't very original. But as we step into 2025, how many truly original works have we seen in the past 30 years? I have no problem with clichés, as long as they are used well.

Seeing Peter Coyote made me happy. He's the kind of actor whose mere presence elevates a film's quality.

Keziah Jones, on the other hand, was a surprise. I didn't expect him, and it was a delightful shock.

The song choices are stunning, as is the extraordinary harmony between Florian Lemaire and Clotilde Hesme.

The subject is not that new: the story of the poor orphan a good person welcomes in his home ,we've seen it a hundred times or more:from little orphan Annie in America to Joselito Jimenez in Spain to little lord Fauntleroy in England,this bedtime fairy tale has been told and told and TOLD.Should we believe the screenwriters,by and large ,( most of the time,more like) ,the benefactor is wealthy.There are exceptions of course: the poignant "Les Neiges Du Kilimandjaro" for instance.

Eva ,the young woman of this movie, is not happy.PLEASE,take pity on her!the poor girl's father lives in a castle the Sun King would covet;she lives in a 150/200 m² apartment in a chic part of Paris.A heiress,she has not to earn her living and she spends her time playing around and going to soirees (notably a fancy dress ball where she dresses up as Wonder Woman);and when she takes the train to Roma (where she breaks up with a lover who caused her abortion - which is not so obvious- and where she enjoys the best ice creams in the world with her protégé ),you should see how she travels !servants at her beck and call :" the orient express" in our times! This character seems to be out of the Nouvelle Vaguelette era,when rich kids only had to contemplate their navel and to bewail on their unfair fate ;the treatment ,anyway,is pure New wavelet :a wandering through a world the average IMDb user can only dream of."We're on the run!the spoiled child says"we're Bonnie and Clyde"!" Don't make me laugh.

A movie which makes you happy!the poster proudly claims: It's wishful thinking!Does she know ,Eva,that in the charity organizations (such as "Les Restaurants Du Coeur" ),the needy number increases every week? And that,before she meets Leon ,she could have found plenty of ways to help her fellow men and women ,who are not as privileged as she is?I sincerely doubt that such a movie will make happy someone who finds it hard to make both ends meet ,or a worker on the dole.

That said,could this movie move the audience?well,perhaps so ,because the brat is cute and displays spontaneity ;his naivete about grown ups problems urges Eva to do some soul-searching (she visits her sick mom at the end of the movie,which the selfish dad (Peter Coyotte,who is quite good at French),shut up in his desirable château ,does not;her lover/friend ,a writer who does not write - this is really par excellence the French feel-good happy-go-lucky movie- has the best line in the whole movie :"I cannot feed your Leon:it's not a cat!"Eventually,it's him who makes Eva take off her glasses and see the "true" world.

Nobody blames Eva for having kept the child so long whereas the community home staff might have worried about their protégé (they are often devoted persons ,and THEIR work may be thankless sometimes) :she's a rich well-meaning woman.And when she wants to adopt Leon - it's not that much easy in France - ,after his biological mom dies opportunely,there's no problem at all:she's a rich well-meaning woman.

Emilie Cherpitel reportedly previously worked with big names;it's the first time she has made her own movie though;I do hope her next one will take place in a more realist world.Would be fairy tales without a sense of wonder,of magic,do not make it.