A Christmas Tale
Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
By removing just two letters from the second word in A Christmas Tale's original French title, Un Conte de Noel, one arrives at Un Con de Noel - that is, to put it in printable language, 'A Christmas Idiot'. And that is probably not a coincidence - for nearly every character in Arnaud Desplechin's film behaves like a con: the acerbic and cancer-stricken matriarch Junon (Catherine Deneuve) who refuses a transplant from her estranged and unhinged son Henri (Mathieu Amalric); the cool elder daughter Elizabeth (Anne Consigny) who banished her younger brother from the family home after paying off his debts; and the siblings' partners, Faunia (Emmanuelle Devos) and Claude (Hippolyte Girardot), who are unafraid to speak their minds.
And it's among such chaos that A Christmas Tale unfolds as Junon and her children gather at the family home for the winter festivities, during which the matriarch's ailment and need for a compatible bone marrow donor are announced.
In this supposedly cosy domestic setting the family is revealed to be even more dysfunctional: Henri was conceived to provide an ill elder sibling with a transplant, a plan that failed when the sick boy died before the operation could be performed; Elizabeth's son, Paul (Emile Berling), is still recovering from a mental disorder but finds himself the only other alternative bone marrow donor for Junon.