Even a Film About Aging and Its Effects Benefits From a Little Star Power

It is Léa Seydoux who carries ‘One Fine Morning’ and, in fact, enlivens the film’s more repetitive passages — sometimes art about routine can, itself, become routine.

Via Sony Pictures Classics
Léa Seydoux and Camille Leban Martins in ‘One Fine Morning.’ Via Sony Pictures Classics

How much pleasure is elicited by “One Fine Morning,” the new film by Mia Hansen-Løve, will depend on whether you value the movies as a conduit for escape or as a mirror held to life. The two aren’t mutually exclusive — “Frankenstein” is, in its own way, as much about the frailties engendered by mortality as, say, “Make Room for Tomorrow” — but where, exactly, the emphasis is placed in terms of fantasy or verisimilitude will tip the scales.

In detailing the prerequisites of aging and its effects on family, “One Fine Morning” follows on the heels of “Amour,” “The Father,” and, further back, “Harry and Tonto,” “Tokyo Story,” and, in its own garish way, “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” Ms. Hansen-Løve’s film concerns itself with Sandra Kienzler (Léa Seydoux), a single mother who works as a translator and whose father, Georg (Pascal Greggory), is slowly going blind and suffering from memory loss. 

Sandra is particularly aggrieved by Georg’s condition given his life as a scholar, a professor of philosophy whose book-lined apartment serves as a cruel reminder of the ravages due to illness. Georg has an involved support system — not only Sandra, but her sister Elodie (Sarah Le Picard), Georg’s current companion Leïla (Fejria Deliba), ex-wife Françoise (Nicole Garcia), and Françoise’s partner Michel (Pierre Meunier). Sandra’s 8-year old daughter Linn (Camille Leban Martins) is also on hand.

Still, Sandra is at the center of the story. Ms. Hansen-Løve’s picture underscores the adage: “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.” We watch as Sandra’s day-to-day routine unfolds, what with attending to Georg at home, dealing with work, and taking care of Linn. One morning she bumps into Clément (Melvil Poupaud), the best friend of her late husband, and, as a consequence, life becomes a little less routine.

Clément is a “cosmo-chemist” whose duties take him away from Paris for weeks at a time. We learn that he’s a loving father of a 4-year old boy and that his marriage is … not so hot. Before you can whistle “Liksom en herdinna,” a piece of music by Swedish composer Jan Johanssen that figures prominently in “One Fine Morning,” Sandra and Clément begin an affair, using whatever time is available in their respective schedules to meet up.

The relationship proves as vexing for Sandra as the duties she’s already engaged in. Its on-again, off-again nature — the women in the audience with whom I attended “One Fine Morning” found Clément’s behavior repellent — is mirrored by the series of elder care facilities through which Georg is shuttled. All the while, Georg’s deterioration continues, resulting in ambling conversations that, at the rare moment, come across like fragments of poetry.

Mr. Greggory gives a heartbreaking turn as Georg, not least because it rings true to life. Anyone who has had a family member suffering from dementia will recognize the astonishing level of nuance brought to the performance. All of the cast members bring their A-game, though special mention should be made of Ms. Leban Martins, an actress of precocious insight, and Ms. Garcia, who is quite funny as a woman of a certain age trying to regain her mojo through some dubious acts of environmental activism.

It is, however, Ms. Seydoux who carries “One Fine Morning” and, in fact, enlivens the film’s more repetitive passages. (Sometimes art about routine can, itself, become routine.) Working against type — the director made a point of stripping Ms. Seydoux of her “seductive attributes” — the actress cuts a different figure here than she did as a Bond girl in “Spectre.” Ms. Seydoux is dressed down and boyish, but it will take more than short hair and a nondescript wardrobe to stem her cinematic appeal. You’d best believe “One Fine Morning” benefits from that most seductive of attributes: star power.


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