A Christmas Tale

Got roped in with Catherine Deneuve but this was not what it promised to be. Certainly not a Christmas movie and not exactly a family drama. It's not absurd enough to qualify for a satire, it's not ridiculous enough to be funny and it doesn't have enough bite to qualify for a hard-core family drama. It just sits somewhere in between not sure of what it wants to be and it doesn't succeed at any of it but it also doesn't necessarily fail, however I think it's biggest flaw is that it is unbearably long. I checked the time so many times and I told myself I made the wrong choice for the evening. It just doesn't know how to end and then it just does without much of a resolution.

Anyway these people are tough to crack or empathize with and certainly this is a French movie. The Sylvia-Ivan-Simon story is very French. I would not stand for that.

Henri and Elizabeth - there's no breakthrough or even clarification, revelation. Paul doesn't make much of an impact. Faunia was most likely underused as a character. The mother is also an enigma. Casually stating which children you like and which you do not, unless you're making it funny or dramatic is just pointless. Ok having your daughter play your daughter in law and saying you do not like her in the movie is kind of funny, but I just realized this now, not during it.

I guess it forgot it needs to be a movie and make some sort of point. Any point. Still, rating it as average for the actors, who are the highlight of this whole affair. I would've had a much worse time with some random actors.

A plethora of awesome actors in perfect symbiosis, refined dialogues, a sense of humor very dark and even cynical, jubilant duels between brothers and sisters, a surrealistic conversation (a kind of 'I love you, neither do I') between a mother and her son, probabilistic calculations on life expectancy, ... It is a real delight but definitely not a Christmas tale. I loved this atypical, dysfunctional and weird family!

Started thinking about 20 minutes in, "when is it all going to come together with some semblance of cohesion and interest?" To me it never did, and was an overlong borefest throughout, with very short takes leading to other very short takes that never got my interest for any.

Never saw any family act the harsh way toward each other that this one did, or talk to each other so carelessly without more mayhem being caused by it than this one did, or showed less love and care for each family member than this one did, even with the mother dying!

Why was this kind of labored film supposed to be the right one to show at Christmas? Maybe Labor Day instead? I sure labored through it unwillingly, and it was sooooo long. And, I love French films! See Cache, For the Love of Others or Amelie instead for great French films, and not this piece of pretty junk.

This is an extremely dysfunctional family. Everybody seems to be aware of their part in it and don't really care.

The great engine is the alcoholic son, who provokes everyone. One tool is the fact that his mother's got cancer and he and his nephew are the only one who can save her. The alcoholic uses it for attacks on the family and not at least the mother. And the characters are forced to develop, not necessarily for the better.

The humor keeps you interested in this chamber play and the 145 minutes never feel long. A quite French movie, but fully appreciable for all of us. A Christmas tale which is both dark and light.

A long drawn-out tale of a father bringing his dysfunctional family together at Christmas after Mom is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The actors are in fine form, and the situations are realistic, but there is scene after scene of bones to pick, icy silence, and family members constantly telling each other (over and over) how much they like don't them. In addition, all of the characters have individual scenes with each other: mother and son, mother and daughter, mother and son's girlfriend, father and cousin, father and daughter, grandson and.... etc., etc., etc. I had some head-scratching moments too where major insults and fights in which I expected a full dramatic blow-up were met with a smirk or complete indifference. If it were slashed in half, (well, at least by a third), this film could have been just as effective.