海角大神

Xavier Legrand鈥檚 intense debut feature, 鈥淐ustody,鈥� takes place a few years after the events depicted in his Oscar-nominated 29-minute short film 鈥淛ust Before Losing Everything,鈥� which featured a physically abusive marriage. Since few people, including myself, have seen that film, 鈥淐ustody鈥� will seem like fresh territory to most audiences, and Legrand assumes as much. In the custody hearing that opens the film, Miriam (L茅a Drucker) and her ex-husband, Antoine (Denis M茅nochet), flanked by their lawyers, square off before a judge. Legrand plays out the 鈥渉e said, she said鈥� scenario without tipping his hand. Who is telling the truth?聽

The burly, working-class Antoine claims he changed jobs and residences to be near his 11-year-old son, Julien (Thomas Gioria), of whom he seeks joint custody. Julien, however, as is demonstrated at the hearing, is fearful of his father. So is his sister, Josephine (Mathilde Auneveux), who will legally be an adult soon and therefore beyond her father鈥檚 control. When, shortly after this scene, Antoine is unexpectedly granted joint custody of Julien, it is the boy who is caught in the middle of all this toxicity. But we still don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on: Has his mother, in vengeance, poisoned his relationship with the father who is only trying to do right by his son, or is the bearish Antoine anything but a teddy bear?

Legrand began his movie career as an actor 鈥� he was one of the boys in Louis Malle鈥檚 great 1987 autobiographical Holocaust drama 鈥淎u Revoir les Enfants鈥� 鈥� so it makes sense that much of this movie is focused on the actors鈥� faces and on how their bodies contort in moments of high duress. 鈥淐ustody鈥� is structured as a suspense film that incrementally morphs into a kind of horror film, but I was too fixated on what the characters were going through to think much about genre mechanics. (Legrand claims his movie鈥檚 three big influences are 鈥淜ramer vs. Kramer,鈥� 鈥淭he Night of the Hunter,鈥� and 鈥淭he Shining,鈥� which pretty much cover the waterfront.)聽

What rescues the film from melodrama is that Legrand drew on extensive interviews with psychologists, emergency police personnel, female victims, and batterers. The bone-deep chill of real, observed experience cuts through this film and gives it a verity that at times reminded me of Frederick Wiseman鈥檚 harrowing documentary 鈥淒omestic Violence.鈥澛�

The drawback to Legrand鈥檚 approach is that at times the people are presented more as symbols than as individuals. Miriam, Antoine, and, to a lesser extent, Julien resemble stand-ins for all those who have preceded them in the domestic violence arena. They don鈥檛 quite have the fullness of characterization that would lift this film into a richer realm where the emphasis is not so much on whodunit as whydunit.

There are still moments that sear, many of them centered on Julien. We can see how his need for a father is severely complicated by his love for his mother and his desire to protect her. When Antoine pressures the boy into revealing, against the court鈥檚 ruling, where Miriam is living, he is crestfallen (and too scared to show it). 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. Grade: B+ (This movie is not rated.)