Revenir

They have been always doing that for years:the estranged mother,father, prodigal son or daughter , who comes back ,to her family unit,after a long exile (here in Canada).Here as usual,if we are to believe the screenwriters, Thomas left home because he felt he was not the son his father longed to have .He didn't even come back for his elder brother's funeral .

But now death is about to strike again .Thomas 's mom is dying ,bedridden in the hospital where his desperate father spends all his days ;and on the farm, the boy meets his widowed sister-in-law,Mona, and her young son ,his six-year-old nephew .

One may call the (late in the movie) Thomas/Mona affair derivative ,but it preserves the viewer from despair ,for the atmosphere is gloomy ,in direct contrast with the luminous landscapes.Death is not only a thing of the past ,but it's present again and is expected any day now, the father looks like a living dead ,and the farm is not really thriving.

The past resurfaces ;the death of the older brother was a so-called boar hunting accident ;but one of Thomas ' friends, who saw the scene , affirms it's not what the son's been told.After the mother's death , it's only natural that Mona was panic-striken when her only son disappears .

The father 's future is abeyance : his elder son's insurance soaked up debts , but how can a broken man run a farm on his own , at a time when agricuture runs into difficulties?His daughter-in-law is a waitress in a night club .Her son has made friends with his uncle from faraway at first sight : he does not want his young relative to leave for this land across the ocean.

The title is thoroughly justified:it is a come back ,in every sense of the word, and perhaps , some sunlight does break through in the very last pictures.