User reviews

Bearing more than a distant resemblance to Robert Redford's critically -acclaimed "ordinary people" ,(1980)this movie deals with the loss of a child in a family , a boy whose death might be an accident (or a suicide)

Whereas Redford opted for the very famous (and peaceful) " Pachelbel Canon , here ,the movie begins,carries on and ends with heavenly choirs ,that shows a tendency to make the viewer feel he's going to watch (or has been watching) an "important " "meaningful" "deep" work. This is the movie's main weakness.

That is not to say "tumultes" is a forgettable movie; you cannot be wrong with Bruno Cremer who began his career with "tough men" characters and ,little by little, broached more intimate roles,with good results .He's excellent as a father who hides his feelings but tells there's nothing left from his only son ( his other children are girls) ;"there's God " the priest says to a faithless desperate father ;as for the mother,she verges on madness :she does believe her son's still alive, she demands he keep his place at the family table, she sends a letter to him .it's too bad that the twin sister of the departed should not be more developed ;the daughters are ,by and large,interesting characters ,though , and you won't understand the "Rosebud" trick of the movie (the name of the boat "Aniscla" )before the very end ; apart of Cremer ,the male parts are conventional and filler ,but this final revelation makes the movie deeply moving ,much more than the grandiloquent score supposed to enhance the sequences.