Les Adoptés (2011) - film review

Lisa, an aspiring musician, lives in Lyon with her adopted sister Marie and their protective mother.  In her thirties, Lisa has a young son, Leo, from an earlier failed relationship and Marie is dependent upon her for moral support.  When Marie begins an affair with a handsome young man named Alex the dynamics of the family unit begin to breakdown.  But then tragedy intervenes and Lisa is forced to re-evaluate her priorities...

Actress Mélanie Laurent makes her directing debut with this genre-bending drama which she also scripted and starred in.  Les Adoptés is not without its charms and its first twenty minutes or so reveal a young filmmaker who certainly has some talent.  The film benefits from a strong cast of talented and likeable performers, who should be credited for the warmth and conviction they bring to the film.  Unfortunately, Laurent succumbs to just about every pitfall that awaits any first-time filmmaker, and this shows both in the screenplay, which relies too heavily on implausible plot devices whilst failing to develop any of the characters, and the direction, which is at times amateurish and self-conscious beyond belief.  The engaging realism of the first part of the film is soon swamped by the mawkish sentimentality that enters the frame near to the midpoint, and what ensues is an agonising excursion into soggy schmaltz that only the most sentimentally minded can hope to get through.  Laurent’s ability as a film director falls spectacularly short of her undoubted skill as an actress, although there are doubtless some for whom her brand of slushy and vacuous melodrama will have an appeal.

© filmsdefrance.com 2011

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