Starring: Sophie Marceau, Juliette Chappey, Marton Csokas, Michel Duchaussoy Director: Yann Samuell Category: IIA (French and English)
It would take a cynic not to warm to With Love ... From the Age of Reason, which despite all its flaws in style and execution, reminds us that there's nothing childish about childhood dreams.
This French heart-warmer, written and directed by Yann Samuell, stars Sophie Marceau as Margaret, a businesswoman who values economics, efficiency and effectiveness above everything else. Since her 40th birthday, Margaret has been receiving a series of letters she wrote to herself at age seven, from a retired village clerk (Michel Duchaussoy, above right with Marceau). To her dismay, the letters remind her of a past she is desperate to escape from and a lengthy list of unfulfilled promises.
Despite her now apparently flawless life with her British lover (Marton Csokas), a business executive who never allows emotions to get in his way, Margaret is increasingly drawn into the past, which features a distraught mother, a runaway dad and a loyal little brother who can't comprehend her indifference towards the family.
The first half of the movie is burdened with fancy animation sequences and stylistic flashbacks, and there are times when you feel sorry for Marceau, who tries so hard to be funny in a Jim Carrey mode that her performance sometimes verges on overacting.
Fortunately, things pick up in the second half, especially when Margaret reunites with her puppy-love buddy (Jonathan Zaccai) and suddenly realises that people must sometimes come to terms and let go of the past while savouring the here and now. From there the drama gathers momentum and reaches its crescendo in a visually and emotionally intriguing scene where childhood fantasy is turned into reality in an Amelie-like fashion.
