Original title: Jusqu’à la garde

France  –  Drama  –  Year: 2017  –  Running time: 93 mins
Language: French

Audience response:

Rating: (4.61 from 33 responses)

• Excellent’: 23 votes
• ‘Very Good’: 7 votes
• ‘Good’: 3 votes
• ‘Satisfactory’: 0 votes
• ‘Poor’: 0 votes

Read the comments here or visit our “Custody” discussion page

Synopsis

First time director/writer Legrand cites Greek tragedies, Kramer vs Kramer and The Shining among his influences. Would he also admit to Zvyagintsev’s Loveless? Miriam and Antoine have divorced and she is seeking sole custody of their son Julien to protect him from a father she claims is violent. The judge rules for joint custody, Julien becoming a hostage to the escalating conflict between his parents.

As in all good movies of this kind, the ordeal of the children is not skimped. They bear the brunt, and the legacy, of the anguish.
Peter Rainer (Christian Science Monitor)

Director: Xavier Legrand
Just Before Loosing Everything (short, 2013)

(for full cast and more information, see “Custody” in IMDB)

CFC Film Notes

Xavier Legrand’s debut feature was the surprise winner of no less than 4 Cesar awards at the 2019 ceremony, including Best Film. It had already taken several audience awards, including the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival prize for best debut feature. This is even more surprising when you examine the plot more closely, a tale of divorce, custody and the toxic relationships at the heart of all of this. At a superficial level this all seems fairly derivative and pedestrian, akin to the Fatal Attraction school of cinema from late 80s Hollywood. However, this is a film with way more gravitas, helped by Legrand’s taut direction, a hybrid of social realism and Hollywood thriller as well as the blistering performances by lead actors Denis Menochet, Lea Drucker and child actor Thomas Gioria.  The latter conveys the confusion and fear that will helps ratchet the intensity as the plot progresses.  

It is no exaggeration to say that this is not one of the most comfortable films to view and the tension becomes almost unbearable at times. There is also a nagging doubt that pervades throughout the film that all is not what it seems and this makes the denouement all the more satisfying. However if you can bear to see more there is an excellent short film prequel Just Before Losing Everything, made by Legrand in 2013 which was Oscar nominated.  One final piece of advice – don’t forget to breathe in the film’s final ten minutes but it may be harder to remind yourself that this is only a movie!!.

Selected UK reviews:

The Spectator (Deborah Ross)
Empire Magazine (David Parkinson)
CineVue (Lucy Popescu)