Malabar Princess (2004) - film review

Unable to cope with his troublesome eight-year old son Tom, Pierre decides to leave him with his grandfather Gaspard, a train driver who lives in the Mont Blanc region of France.  Tom’s mother died five years before, in circumstances known only to his father, and it is this which explains the young boy’s learning difficulties and rebellious nature.  Robert, a neighbour of Gaspard, lost his son in the same accident that claimed the life of Tom’s mother, and preoccupies himself by collecting debris from an aeroplane which crashed into Mont Blanc fifty years ago.  Robert’s morbid obsession gives Tom some very strange ideas…

Gilles Legrand’s first film explores the subject of family bereavement in a most unusual way, through the eyes of a mischievous but good-natured young boy who is forced to shack up with his surly, solitary grandfather.  The idea has a lot of potential and there are a number of sequences in the film which are effectively realised.  However, for each good idea the script bears there are at least three stinkers which rob the film of most of its sense of truth and realism.  As the film progresses, Tom’s antics become more and more implausible and it becomes abundantly clear that neither the scriptwriter nor the director have any idea how eight year old children behave or think in real life.  Jacques Villeret doesn’t have much to make his character convincing, and, like most of the adults in the film, comes across as two-dimensional and rather unsympathetic.  The film’s one saving grace is Yves Angelo’s extraordinarily beautiful camerawork, which captures the sheer awesome majesty of one of the most beautiful areas of France.

© James Travers 2006

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