by Dov Kornits
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jonathan Cohen, Leïla Bekhti, Josephine Jepy, Sylvie Vartan, Lionel Dray
Intro:
… a mature work that is never not entertaining.
The cliché of the Jewish mother is the springboard and heart of this French dramedy adaptation of Roland Perez’s autobiographical novel, Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan.
The first half of the film focuses on Perez’s childhood, the youngest in a Moroccan immigrant family in Paris, he is born with a club foot, which his mother (Leïla Bekhti) refuses to accept as his lot in life. Keeping him out of school, she does anything she can to give Roland a chance to enter school without appearing disabled.
The kid goes along with it all, lucky to be surrounded by siblings and a loving family.
Later on, with both of his parents aging, and his siblings nowhere to be seen (for some reason), Perez is a lawyer, living the second generation immigrant life and given the opportunity to represent his childhood idol, singer/actress Sylvie Vartan.
We’ve kept the plot deliberately skeletal, because life happens, and it’s in the details that the accumulative power of the film bears fruit. Many of the characters, particularly Roland and his mother, are anything but two-dimensional, and their behaviour questionable in the short term, but ultimately, this third dimension makes the whole so affecting.
Bekhti (A Prophet) is the standout, aging from her twenties to old age throughout the film, and keeping us with her all the way.
It’s an ambitious enterprise by Canadian director Ken Scott, whose best known work is Starbuck, which he adapted into English with Delivery Man, starring Vince Vaughn. Once Upon My Mother is a mature step forward that is never not entertaining. It’s also proof that you don’t need a 10 episode run on TV to create multi-dimensional characters and an engaging story. You just need three good acts!
Once Upon My Mother is a life-affirming immigrant story that will lift your spirits and have you running to mum after the film to apologise and say thank you.
