Fresh
[Desplechin] has skill, patience, empathy, and insight; quickened by the holiday occasion, they make the title of his film ultimately, if unconventionally, right.
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic
A Christmas Tale
The dilemma. The reunion
2008 · 2h 32m · Not Rated
Comedy, Drama
Directed by
Arnaud Desplechin
Overview
When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.
Director and cast
- Arnaud Desplechin Director
- Catherine Deneuve as Junon
- Anne Consigny as Elizabeth, their oldest child
- Jean-Paul Roussillon as Abel
- Mathieu Amalric as Henri, their middle child
- Émile Berling as Paull, Elizabeth and Claude's son
- Chiara Mastroianni as Sylvia
- Melvil Poupaud as Ivan, their youngest child
- Emmanuelle Devos Cast
- Hélène Darras Cast
- Hippolyte Girardot Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
86%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Despite occasional bouts of tedium over the epic course, a surprising buoyancy emerges: Desplechin's methods begin to inform, even brighten, the message.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Fresh
Desplechin is an inspired impurist. His Christmas Tale is untidy, overstuffed and delicious: a genuine holiday feast.
David Ansen, Newsweek
Rotten
You could, of course, forgive the whole enterprise as the extravagances of an intellectual fairytale, but the film's wayward eccentricities outweigh its good performances and breezy telling of a jumble of a plot.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Fresh
In this dark comedy everyone is at the end of someone else's strings.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
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