Jusqu'à la garde

Movies are best consumed without expectations but sometimes a warning is needed. The hyper-realistic French film Custody (2018) is less about child custody than it is a vehicle for depicting the most pulse-racing domestic terrorism you are likely to see in a long while. It is visceral and raw, as is the fact that one French woman is killed every three days by a partner. This film suggests why.

The opening scenes are clinically documentary in style. A magistrate takes submissions from lawyers for estranged couple Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Miriam (Léa Drucker) over custody of their 12-year old son Julien (Thomas Gioria). It is impossible for us to gauge the merits of either litigant and easy to empathise with both. On the available evidence, the magistrate takes a routine middle path and awards custody, an outcome that will imperil mother and child.

If it were possible to plot the tension curve of this film, it would start just off the floor and work its way through the roof in its final seconds. Initially Antoine behaves like an aggrieved husband who loves his son. Step by step, we see him using custody rights to manipulate Julien into revealing information about his mother. The legally necessary contact between the slightly built Miriam and the towering hulk Antoine become increasingly ominous. His overbearing silence in key scenes drips with menace as she knows his capacity for violence and the law is no help.

This film stands out for the grounded way it depicts the escalation of threat. It keeps actual physical domestic violence out of the picture, and instead shows the psychological pressures of trying to separate from a violent man. The acting performances are extraordinary. Ménochet only has to raise an eyebrow and tensions rise, while Drucker is a portrait of frozen fear. The standout performance comes from young Gioria whose astonishing authenticity belies his tender years. The cinematography powers the narrative and shapes the claustrophobic atmosphere in which a mother and child are being given progressively less space to breathe. Many scenes are prolonged in length to create real-time voids into which is poured unimaginable suspense.

Be warned: this is not entertainment. It is more like stepping into the shoes of a defenceless mother and child who must fend for themselves against a raging beast. The indescribably frightening final scenes re-define the concept of 'toxic masculinity' and make you wonder about today's role models of manhood. Director: Xavier Legrand Stars: Denis Ménochet, Léa Drucker, Thomas Gioria

Denis Menochet, best known to American audiences as the French farmer in the introductory scene of Inglorious Bastards, gives a riveting and horrifying performance as an abusive husband and father separated from his wife and vying for joint custody. This is essentially a horror film, where the tightly wound father and husband is no less fearsom than a monster or killer.

This is an intense film. Especially if you grew up with divorced parents. Everything's truthful. I didn't expect the film to turn into a thriller since it started like a social drama ala Ken Loach. The last part feels like a Hitchcock film sometimes. The cast did a great job, especially the little kid.

When a couple divorce, during the hearing the judge allows visitation rights to the father (Denis Ménochet) to their 11 year-old son, Julien (Thomas Gioria) at weekends. In the following weeks, the boy is relucatant to be with his father and is wary of him, as his mother (Léa Drucker). In time the situation deteriorates further with any trust eroding.

A slow burner of a drama that leads to an intense and dramatic end with some simmering performances, especially from Ménochet. The camera keeps up close and intimately with the characters, adding to its intensity. The opening, lengthy hearing scene is smart as it gives the legal analysis, but not the emotional one while the emotional one unfolds as the film develops.

The French writer/director Xavier Legrand was nominated for the Oscar for Best Live Action Short for 2014 with his film "Just Before Losing Everything". This film was about a mother and her children who are fleeing a violent and abusive husband…and it sure packed an emotional wallop. Amazingly, Legrand is back with the same family… and a full-length follow up to the previous film…and it's even better! A reason to watch this is because the most intense, heart- wrenching and well directed 15 minutes make up the final portion of the film…and I could hear folks crying, gasping and calling out as well!!

The film begins with a custody hearing. The judge is listening to the evidence and it's difficult to really know what's going on with the family. Is the father an abusive monster who doesn't deserve to have custody of his 11 year-old son? Or, is the child right when he says he never wishes to have contact with the man again…and he's afraid of the man? Regardless, the judge decides to award joint custody to the father and mother. Inexplicably, the visits with the possibly violent father are unsupervised…and the audience has no idea what's going to happen next. Needless to say…really bad things are going to happen and soon!

The first half of this movie is good…but not amazing. It's all important as set up for the final portion and I cannot say enough about how well all this comes together at the end. Not a film for the faint of heart, but a blood-pumping, Adrenalin-inducing masterful film that could easily be a strong candidate for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. If it's not at least nominated, I'd be very surprised.