Les Adoptés (2011)
Directed by Mélanie Laurent

Film Review

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.

Film Synopsis

Lisa, an aspiring musician in her early thirties, lives in the French town of Lyon with Marie, her adopted sister, and their over-protective mother.  Bruised by their past experiences of men, the three women have learned to get by without the male sex and they now lead a harmonious, trouble-free life together.  Lisa has a young son, Léo, from an earlier failed relationship and she knows that Marie depends on her for moral and emotional support.  The unity of this happy little community comes under threat when Marie starts an affair with an attractive young man named Alex.  An unexpected tragedy hits Lisa hard and forces her to re-evaluate her priorities...