Chanson douce

I don't know if I want to watch this.

The Theme of Mommy-Guilt is currently a popular plotline.

If the Nanny isn't ideal... If there is a problem... Then Mom should have stayed Home.

Whilst the acting is good the storyline isn't and really it's all rather pointless right up to the rather twisted ending. It's a story that's been told before and better in films like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.

I can't recommend it I'm afraid.

This French feature is definitely not a crime drama; THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADDLE, back in 1992, starring Rebecca De Mornay, another evil nanny tale, WAS a thriller, with criminal elements. Here, you have nothing of the sort, only a pure depressing drama, showing a Karine Viard at her very best. That's only a shame that her character is not more deeply explained, many holes on this matter, but maybe that was a decision of the producers ad writers, to enhance the mystery behind her role. Karine Viard is the very highlight of this movie. She is not Jessica Walter in PLAY MISTY FOR ME, though the topic of this first Clint Eastwood's film was not the same at all. It was also question of a f...twisted mind gal. The scene at her home with the octopus was certainly inspired by a sequence from Jean Pierre Melville's LE CERCLE ROUGE. Remember Yves Montand, drunk, alone in his home...

Not bad, but a bit long-winded. And certainly not a Crime, but a serious Drama.

Watched this tense French language drama without knowing anything of the true story it was based on. Well, I looked up the story afterwards and I was glad not to have known. The tension is kept pretty taut, the nanny character managing to stay on the right side of believability, which is more ominous somehow than some cliched depiction of derangement. The parents of the two children ignore the warning signs out of self interest and convenience. You want to shake them from their complacency. A creeping dread prevails with each passing scene, a lot of it commonplace but just a touch (and sometimes more) out of kilter. Overall, it's worth 90 mins of your time.