Father of My Children

Directed by Mia Hansen-Love. Starring Chiara Caselli, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Alice de Lencquesaing, Alice Gautier 12A cert, IFI/Light House, Dublin, 111 min

HERE’S ONE of those films that is almost impossible to review without revealing a significant, distinctly surprising plot development. We will, however, give it a go.

This tasteful French drama, winner of Un Certain Regard at last year’s Cannes, begins in the style of too many other, well, tasteful French dramas. Gregoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is a busy, dedicated film producer. Committed to producing a feature for a demanding Scandinavian auteur, he is beginning to buckle under the pressure of a shrinking bank account and various booming budgets.

Sylvia (Chiara Caselli), Gregoire’s long-suffering wife, makes a genuine effort to be supportive, but, as the creditors loom, Gregoire increasingly neglects both her and his two predictably good-looking children.

Taking place in large kitchens, on artfully distressed stairwells and amid delightful Parisian boulevards, the film unravels its establishing plotlines at a leisurely, confident pace. Father of My Childrenis, you suspect, turning into one of those Gallic talk-pieces that generate cool admiration rather than rampant passion. De Lencquesaing makes something likable of the hero and Caselli radiates busy sophistication.

Then everything changes. The film does not shift genres exactly, but it takes on an intensity that contrasts markedly with its unfussy – if busy – opening acts. Managing to incorporate gentle satire of art-movie pretentions with a convincing study of how strong emotion strains the psyche, the film is alive with both charm and intelligence.

Father of My Childrenis, maybe, little more than a very classy soap opera. (The music is annoyingly twee and the settings a little too tastefully bourgeois.) As such things go, however, it finally proves hard to resist.