The first third of this film does a good job of establishing the setting and the mood, namely lower middle class, French Canadian Montreal in 1963 and a teenage girl, Hanna, stuck in a very bad family situation, what with an abusive, ne'r do well father and a beaten down, depressive mother. But then the film slows down, stalls out and kind of circles around itself as we are treated to a basic misery stew composed of dad's mental and physical assaults against his family, mom's suicide attempt, a nasty, anti Semitic landlady, a pervy baker who exchanges bread for sexual favors from Hanna and a general air of poverty and gloom as winter sets in and money goes out. Lighter ingredients include Hanna's loving older brother with whom she has an incestuous relationship (sigh), a female friend to whom Hanna is physically attracted, a wise, supportive high school teacher (not too much of a cliche there, right?) And a cute dog.
Then, following Hanna's less than credible descent into prostitution, for which we are asked to blame her obsession with "Vivre Se Vie", perhaps sensing the audience going "Give me a freakin break!", director Lea Pool does a rather unconvincing 180 and ends on a false, cloying note of reconciliation and sweetness which left both Roger Ebert and this viewer less than enthralled.
Bottom line: Despite this film's flaws, if for no other reason than her ability to elicit a fine performance from teen actor Karine Vanasse as Hanna I would be interested in seeing more of Ms. Pool's work. C plus.
