‘Other People’s Children’ review: The delicate art of blending a family, French style
“Other People’s Children” treats its adults like adults, and the story’s central child like a human being, not a plot device. Those factors alone make it an exception to the usual movie rules.
This French import, which is being distributed in the U.S. by Music Box Films, boasts charm as well as insight. If it cuts some corners and ducks some complexity, the actors make it more than merely agreeable.
Writer-director Rebecca Zlotowski sees to that. We meet the story’s 40-ish Parisian schoolteacher Rachel, played with effortless, easy charm by Virginie Efira, not long after she has begun seeing a new man. He is car designer Ali, a bit older, portrayed by Roschdy Zem. Their mutual attraction preoccupies them both (lots of come-hither texting goes on, while Rachel’s in faculty meetings) and things develop nicely.
At Ali’s apartment, she sees photos of his 4-year-old daughter, Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves). It’s time we meet, Rachel tells Ali. From there, “Other People’s Children” takes Rachel down a new avenue of life, sometimes sweetly, sometimes bittersweetly.
The complications weave in and around these people’s lives. Zlotowski’s film, graceful and forthright in its technique and in its feeling, doesn’t cook up contrivances so much as reveal and acknowledge what’s there from the beginning, just below the romantic, sexually distracted surface.
Rachel lost her mother at a young age, we learn. Ali can’t resolve all his feelings, from guilt to regret and back again, regarding his ex, Alice (Chiara Mastroianni), who takes care of Leila most of the time. The script is shrewd enough not to demonize this character; the film follows the interconnected lives of decent people putting some legitimate effort into the relational geometry required by their unremarkable but demanding circumstances.
There are times when “Other People’s Children” dips into romantic sex farce; at one point, Efira’s Rachel finds herself locked outside on Ali’s apartment balcony, nude. The film shifts into a more sobering mood in its second half, but not suddenly, or falsely; we’re more than ready for it, because Zlotowski takes the blithe Rachel’s newfound loves seriously. Is she a stepmom? A friend? A lover? A future life partner? Both Ali and Leila have a claim on her heart, so when things become knotty, it hurts. Neither she nor the audience knows quite where it’s going.
As played by Efira (”Benedetta”), Rachel has a beautifully full life at her disposal, and the baseline serenity gives the movie a charmed air. Yet in all her scenes with Zem, Efira suggests a real life, being lived, peppered with questions and doubts. For some, “Other People’s Children” may feel a little too smooth. But the film’s success starts and ends with the natural vibrancy of the performances, and Efira leads the way.
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'OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN'
3 stars (out of 4)
(In French with English subtitles)
Unrated (some nudity, language, smoking)
Running time: 1:43
How to watch: Now in theaters
