Little White Lies ☆☆☆☆

I think I will carry on the theme this year of not putting a jokey sub heading in with the review, just as it normally takes up most of my time thinking of one!

This latest review is of a French film Le Petit Mouchoirs (Little White Lies), about a group of friends who go on their annual holiday despite their friend Ludo being involved in a near-fatal collision.

The film follows this group as secrets are told, lies created to hide the secret, and everyone pretends to be normal while actually coming apart at the seams. Marion Cotillard is most likely the face that brings in a wider European and World audience as she has starred in such films as Inception and won an Oscar a few years ago for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. Cotillard plays Marie, a single filmmaker who spends many months of the year abroad, has brief relationships with men and women that she curtails before they have a chance to grow. Marie also is a former lover of Ludo, and so her grief at his accident is most prominent.

Among the rest of the friends are Max, the one who bankrolls the holiday each year and is now making comments about it, and spends the majority of the holiday hunting down the weasels in his dry wall and being a grumpy old man. The reason for Max's tense state is a secret he has been told by Vincent, another of the friends who like Max is married with small children. I won't reveal his secret as if you are likely to see this film it may ruin any atmosphere that is created by the revelation.

There are also the wives of Max and Vincent struggling with their own unhappiness and the lies they are forced to tell. Plus two men quite different from each other as one pines for a former love and the other seeks to ruin his relationship by any means.

The drama is built up well and the story is evenly laid out. There is no rush to the end as the 150 minute time count will tell you, but for the genre of essentially a family-drama it would be no good if it had been told in 90 minutes. Guillaume Canet (Love Me If You Dare, Last Night) wrote and directed this film with a steady hand upon the helm. There is no deviance from the idea that everybody is lying to each other, but nor are the lies so truly shocking (possibly with one exception) that it overwhelms the audience member. I was engrossed in the twisty lives of these people, and found them to be funny and tragic - a combination that is rare to achieve in filmmaking.

This reminded me of another French film called Summer Hours and starring Juliette Binoche. That was actually about a family and the complications of relationships within them, how to deal with the death of their matriarch and what would happen once she had gone, do they still come together as often or would they drift? This i think is a key part of Little White Lies, although Ludo appears briefly throughout it is clear he is the Patriarch of this family of friends, and his absence causes ripples of anxiety.

As the film plays out the drama intensifies in some lives while it subsides in others. There are happy conclusions amidst tragedy, and a real feeling of togetherness one could only hope for your friendship group. This is a genre the French excell at, and you cannot blame them for protecting their film industry as they do, because these films you would not want to be diluted by an American influence.

I really enjoyed this film and I think if you enjoy watching drama there is little to not like about this film. I only wish I could speak French.