Review of Summer Hours (2008) by Dfw F — 15 Dec 2009

Golden Globes-nominated its 2nd French family drama in a row. I just last week finished viewing the French "A Christmas Tale" (which was for me a long drawn out dreary affair) We look at this movie Summer Hours and find a family ending up the affairs of loved ones and selling the possessions.

The film moves into some sentimental areas by showing us how sad it is to see part of your life disappear. In a small town, Helene is a family matriarch who has devoted her life to preserving the legacy of her artist uncle.

However, while her eldest son, Frederic, wants to preserve her home after her passing, she harbors no such illusions as she prepares her legacy. After her death, her children realize what she anticipated as they come to terms with their inheritance's place in their own lives.

In the resulting disposition of their mother's assets, treasured heirlooms of a romantic family past drift away even as their changing modern world confronts the value of their memories. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue behind some of the objects left behind.

Olivier Assayas has film credits which include "Clean," "Demonlover" and "Irma Vep,". Besides covering the breakup of this family this film asks broader questions about the breakup of both a culture and the society that supports it and does it with adult intelligence.

What does it mean when money determines the value of everything? Is society diminished or improved when things of worth exist only in museums? What happens if all the younger French business p[people and intellects move out of France? The film also explores the warm intimate personal relations of the siblings.

The loss they experience affects each one of us (viewers) individually. "Summer Hours" isn't so much about how the siblings deal with the loss of their mother (which occurs early in the film) as it is about how they deal with the meaning of all the things she's left behind.

Like last yearâ??s A Christmas Tale I find the film just too slow. I think most US viewers will agree. I am surprised of the Golden Globe Best Foreign Film Nomination.