A number of years ago, a friend suggested that there are two kinds of movies: Those that are indisputably entertainments; i.e., they try to tell highly dramatized stories that operate at recognized distances from ordinary reality.
Nothing wrong with that but, as my friend argued, another kind of movie also deserves consideration, one that works on a smaller scale while trying to remind us, “This is how we live.”
The fine French film One Fine Morning belongs in this latter category, the cinema of ordinary life.
Relying on a convincing performance from Lea Seydoux, French director Mia Hansen-Love introduces us to a widow and single mother who works as a translator. Seydoux's Sandra has a daughter (Camille Leban Martins) who needs attention. Nothing special. Just the attention eight-year-olds demand.
The problems that Sandra encounters are vexing and familiar. Her father (Pascal Gregory) is losing himself to dementia, a particularly difficult affliction for a former philosophy professor whose life has revolved around reading and thinking.
Long separated from her ex-husband, Sandra's mother (Nicole Garcia) tries to help, but she has moved on with her life as a political activist and refuses to make an emotional investment in her former husband’s situation.
When it becomes clear that Sandra's father no longer can live independently, she attempts to place him in a good nursing home, a problem compounded by cost, waiting lists and practical considerations: What to do with all those books her father has accumulated, his prize possessions?
Sandra’s life further complicates when she runs into Clement (Melvin Poupaud), an old friend who works as a cosmochemist, a job that has something to do with studying chemical compositions related to the origins of matter. A different kind of chemistry sparks. A relationship develops.
Again, complications can't be avoided. Clement is married and has a young son. He also travels a great deal for his work. Hansen-Love doesn't portray Clement as a louse. He's genuinely conflicted about the affair he's having. Can he do the right thing? And what, in his case, is the right thing?
For her part, Sandra needs many things: A mature sexual relationship, a solution to her father's problems, and the energy to continue her career while caring for her daughter.
Put another way, she's like millions of women who juggle their way through the intricate routines of daily life.
Hansen-Love avoids the kind of plot points that thunder through a movie. Problems arise. Solutions are found. Compromises are made. Sandra's relationship with Clement assumes an on-again/off-again quality.
Credit Seydoux and Hansen-Love with an achievement that doesn’t call undue attention itself: They open a window into a life depicted with clarity but without either brutalizing sharpness or soggy empathy.
So, the we leave the movie by paying it the best compliment we can: Yes, this is how life was for some women in 2023.
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