Chanson douce

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.

I have to admit, when I read thriller I thought this was going to be over the top ... but overall that is something the movie can not be accused of. Yes there is a characer who takes things to far. But even small things are served in small bites for us to chew - no pun intended.

The central performance is amazing - and while I am still struggling with that end ... it still elevates the movie for me. Of course that can go either way for the viewers. Which by the way if you say you are using spoilers, I'd hope you would actually talk about something than being vague about it - like an open review - again no pun intended.

This creeps up on you for sure and while you may not agree with certain decision the characters take ... you can understand them. Empathy can be a great thing ... sometimes it is "wasted" on the wrong person. But how could you know that, right? Really well done and slow moving (pace wise), this will not be everyones tea ... but those who will like it, will actually cherish it.

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.

Karin Viard's performance is just excellent: she's subtly unhinged, creepily obsessive and in the end plainly scary. Her character's background is barely delineated but we can see everything through her every move and word.

The parents are also good in their own way, but they don't have much script to work with: despite having to deal with an increasingly weird (to be kind) nanny, they seem to be unable to face the problem and act passively in most occasions (especially the mom). This creates an imbalance of tension in the movie and the natural climax doesn't feel as devastating as it should be.

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...