The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

I've just finished watching this for the second time as it overwhelmed me emotionally the first time and I had to check if it was just the wine.

Well, it wasn't.

It's a marvellous film - beautifully crafted, played by a cast of quality actors, great soundtrack.

Watching this film reminded me of why we need the French film industry. Today I saw Toy Story 3 (not a bad instalment in the franchise, but nothing special) with my 9-year old daughter and as we came out of the auditorium, I looked around and saw ads for (1) an animated dog flick for kids, (2) a standard "blockbuster" CGI-fest, all shot in blue and (3) a loads-of-explosions bog standard actioner. Why is no-one making films about reality anymore? Are the lives of real people no longer worth considering? Why is Hollywood producing such a deluge of crap these days?

La Premier Jour de la Reste de ma Vie tells the story of a family by way of a few individual days over the course of c15 years. Don't expect any contrived pivotal moments of misunderstanding - this film is above that. It shows the conflicts between family members and the frustration and bitterness, yet attempts to demonstrate how these rifts came about. It also shows how people learn from the failures of their parents and how they try not to repeat them. Look up the poem "This be the Lesson" by Philip Larkin for how important this is...

It is also about love, the bonds of family, redemption, nostalgia and if the final scene doesn't have tears pissing from your eyes, then you have no heart.

I must say I've seen a lot of movies but rarely I feel so much drawn into this kind of stories. Believe me, it's a sign of a good movie!

I immediately saw great camera angles and this follows the film throughout. I love the movement of the camera, following the story acted out by good actors in a script that is funny and well written. On top of that, the film has a great musical score.

We go right into what is an average French family. Man and wife and two grown up kids. Time to have a life crisis or four. Mum and dad is no longer having sex, the daughter feels estranged and the son procrastinating. More shouldn't be told, though it's an everyday story from a French middle class family.

The film is funny, still it's able to balance into both sentimentality as swell as sadness. Typically French, but in a good way. The latter years I think the French film industry has turned out a lot of great films, and again French film is something you awaits the best from. This is another example of such a film. Well done!

Sweet, human, funny and touching, this portrait of 5 key moments in a families life may not dive as deep as some films into the complexity of 'family', but makes up for it by reminding us that families – for all their flaws and pettiness and hurts – are also wonderful and important and, if we're lucky, full of love.

Remi Bezancon manages to make this argument without falling into too much sappiness. The acting is generally excellent, and the film has a knack for catching all those small details in our lives that eventually add up to larger, more important ones.

Not a masterpiece, but a lovely and very heartfelt and enjoyable film.

Realistic, funny, honest, gritty with fantastic music! What more could you ask for? I wish I could find the soundtrack for this as each song fits each moment perfectly (whichever emotion it is trying to portray).

I found myself caught between laughing & (almost) crying throughout the entire film. I am sure each person can relate to something in at least one of the characters... the angsty rebellious teenager, the hopeless romantic, the 'drop out', the couple who has fallen out of love and the doctor who is stuck in a job he doesn't love and a relationship he is not happy in.

The acting in this movie is simply fantastic.

It is structured around five key moments in a family's life and is such a fun, inspiring movie which plays with all of the different relationships between father & son, mother & daughter and of course, husband & wife.

It may sound intense or grim, but in fact I found this film to be (along with some intense moments of course), full of light and fluffy feel-good moments too.

You will see each character's different perspective on life and how they grow, which makes interesting watching. From the start to the end, I just loved it.

Don't be put off by the subtitles - you don't need to understand French to understand this wonderful movie!

Yes we've already watched this kind of movie... Yes the different "life issues" and/or "family issues" that are exposed are quite classic...

But I really enjoyed watching this movie. The actors and actresses are very good, the musical atmosphere is great too, and the situations or dialogs made me laughed quite often.

It's a typical french movie, describing the different parts of a human life, from first life experiments to "old age" crises. The love that exists in the family looks real, pure, and is stronger than all the ordeals the different family members will encounter.

A real sweet time I had by watching this movie, you can go!