Juliette Binoche, an actor who grows more soulful as the years pass, stars as bereaved mother Anna, a French woman living in Sicily who just lost her adult son Giuseppe in some kind of sudden, unspecified accident. She’s barely had time to recover from the funeral when Giuseppe’s girlfriend Jeanne (Lou de Laâge) arrives on a flight from Paris expecting to see Giuseppe for the Easter holiday. For reasons kept vexingly mysterious, Anna chooses not to tell Jeanne that Giuseppe is dead. Perhaps she thinks the younger woman’s belief in his continued existence keeps his spirit around in some way, and indeed, a light dusting of supernatural elements supports that interpretation.
Director Piero Messina’s debut feature is full of striking images, especially of Catholic rituals and darkened, palatial rooms backlit with despair. But the core concept is kind of stupid. After a while, one just starts to think Jeanne must be either thick or absurdly self-absorbed not to have twigged what’s up. All credit to De Laâge for keeping her sympathetic. The same goes for Binoche, who is one of those rare creatures who actually looks more beautiful when she cries.
