Après lui review

30 March 2009

Catherine Deneuve stars as Camille, a Lyon divorcée whose son Mathieu is killed in a car accident. The driver of the vehicle is his best friend, Franck, who survives the crash and assumes he won’t be welcome at the funeral. But devastated as Camille is - and much to the dismay of some of the other mourners - she sees no point in blaming Franck, personally inviting him home for the wake. Indeed, as she faces life without Mathieu, Camille lavishes more and more attention upon his friend, offering him a job in the bookstore she runs and wheedling her way into his youthful world of gigs and bars.

While the opening scene hints that Franck and Mathieu may have been more than friends, there is no overt gay theme here. Instead, director Gaël Morel's follow-up to Le Clan offers a thoughtful and affecting examination of grief and the extremes to which it can drive us. And thanks to Deneuve's measured and masterful central performance, we never lose sympathy for Camille, even as her pursuit of Franck escalates into obsession. Après Mathieu? Even by the film's end, heartbreakingly, she still doesn't have an answer.

Scott Hughes