filmalamosa A psychological drama about a father who disappears and dies years later. His son a successful doctor imagines what it would be like if his father had returned in a reverie.This movie explores the pain caused by absent parents and the scars they leave.Beautifully filmed but I found the actor playing the doctor son (the father is also a doctor) and his brother were distorted looking (on purpose?). They look like vampires or 50s space aliens.The film is interrupted by boring not funny monologues by the brother who apparently works as a stand up comedian (in the reverie only I imagine) delivering monologues about the father--this is a plot device that falls flat and ruins rather than helps things. It seems gimmicky.The film is OK... will not affect you deeply like it is supposed to though. Some how it just doesn't quite work? The comedian part is gimmicky and backfires.

hannah-mowat This is a film whose title i find highly significant. It creates a tension throughout all the action which i find highly integral to the significance of the piece. The casting, however, i found cliché. The 'rich yet forlorn' wife of Jean-Luc is predictably docile looking. Beautiful she is, yes, and aristocratic in movement, also, but she is exactly what one expects. Equally, Jean-Luc's lover, who is more Mediterranean looking, with more spirit and with a more voluptuous body, is also the archetypal affair. Why, in 2001 are we still type-casting? However, I find Jean-Luc immaculately chosen, with the touch of 'froideur' in his eyes that hints at a depth in the character, and also, an 'un-depth' for it is very difficult to penetrate his often emotionless actions. Not a film that i would say was beautifully shot...i don't find the photography breathtaking, but it is a perfect french thriller: classy, subtle and psychologically deep.

George Parker "My Father and I", as the DVD was entitled, spends its time examining the emotional erosion of an icy, controlling, stilted, and successful Gerontologist upon the return of the father who abandoned him as a child. A well presented psychodrama with a solid cast, good production value, and a meager storyline, this film tells its tale of gathering rage cloaked in polite conversation through nuances of body language, behavior, and minimal dialogue. Subtitled and ambiguous in beginning and end, "My Father and I" was well received by both critics and public the public at large given allowances for subtitles. Recommended for French film fans into psychodramas. (B+)

davidguy The last opus of Anne Fontaine is a combination of two influences: Oedipus complex and Nettoyage A Sec (Fontaine's previous film).What it takes from the Oedipus story is of course the conflictual relationship between Charles Berling (the son) and Michel Bouquet (the father), and how Berling tries to 'kill' his father to affirm his own identity. From Nettoyage A Sec, the film takes his structure: how a seemingly ideal couple (Berling and Regnier) copes with the unexpected intrusion of the father.If it were just for the acting, How I killed my Father would deserve a 10. Bouquet and Berling share an astounding intimacy on screen which interestingly happened off the set as well (they wrote a book of thoughts together just after the shoot). Regnier is surprisingly convincing in the beautiful up-class wife; what a versatility after her role in the Dreamlife of Angels when she was a young insecure squatter. However there is no special twist in the storyline, like one which made Nettoyage A Sec so disturbing...To sum up, a good acting piece which failed to deliver in the drama.