IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER (L’homme qu’on aimait trop)
Cohen Media Group
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for CompuServe ShowBiz. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: B+
Director: André Téchiné
Screenwriter: André Téchiné, Cedric Anger, based on “Une femme face a la Mafia” based on the memoir of Renée Le Roux and Jean-Charles Le Roux
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Catherine Deneuve, Adele Haenel, Jean Corso
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 4/30/15
Opens: May 15, 2015
Two French movies with mafia themes, both inspired by true events and both taking place principally in the 1970s, are opening in New York on May 15, which may be either a coincidence or a sign of Gallic things to come. One, Cédric Jimenez’s “The Connection,” centers on a struggle between good and evil; a French magistrate with a pit-bull determination to bring down a drug kingpin. The other, by the better-known director André Téchiné, “In the Name of My Daughter,” is less action-centered. Téchiné’s film deals more with romance, with a woman who loves too much, and with in-law problems the likes of which you should never experience. Both films are worth seeing, though “The Connection” would appeal more to the action crowd while “In the Name of My Daughter” exploits what the French filmmakers are so noted for, which is sparkling talk and plenty of it.
Téchiné, whose films delve into the complexities of human emotion and who is experienced in drawing powerful performances from female characters is spot-on once again in this, his seventh collaboration with Catherine Deneuve. Evoking a spirited presentation from Adèle Haenel as Agnès Le Roux, heiress to a casino fortune who rebels against childhood ballet lessons as seen principally in her rendition of a wild African dance; and from Catherine Deneuve as her mother, Renée Le Roux, a classy woman, equally strong and independent who inherits a casino in Nice on the French Rivera but whose fortunes are slipping because of competition from Fratoni (Jean Corso), a Mafia chieftain. The film balances the unrequited love of Agnès for her mother’s lawyer, Maurice Agnelet (Guillaume Canet), a man who aspires to an upper-middle-class life, who urges Agnès to betray her own mom; and the politics of running a business in the south of France during the 1970s.
As Agnès, Adèle Haenel is able credibly to show the growth of her feelings for the ambitious lawyer from the time they first met as he escorts the young woman from the Nice airport to her mother’s villa, through her own betrayal at the handsome and charming man’s manipulations. After voting at a private stockholders’ meeting against her own mother’s interests, Agnès oversees her mother’s divestment of the casino, and the young woman’s coming into the sum of several million francs which she shares equally with her lover—who soon thereafter signs a mutual power of attorney. When Agnès goes missing for several months—courtesy of the Mafia (I think but nobody to this day can be sure)—Maurice takes over her entire account. Years later, we suspect that she has been murdered, though no body was ever found. However, once thirty years have passed, Renée Le Roux, now played by Deneuve in heavy old woman’s makeup, lucks out in her pursuit of justice. The court has put him on trial for murder.
The film scores high as a thriller without the usual American-style frissons. Renée Le Roux is faced by many enemies—her daughter, her lawyer, several stockholders determined to oust her, and a Mafia kingpin. But short of a bullet that the casino owner finds one day on her desk and a body that goes missing, not a shot is fired, nor is a knife wielded. This is all to the good. It focuses our attention on the real subjects of a young woman frustrated by a repressed upbringing and later by a man who admits that he cannot love her the way she loves him. Action-wise, the most telling scene in the picture finds Agnès doing an uninhibited solo dance to a recording she made while in Africa, while her lover looks on impassively.
The film is shot in gorgeous spots and must therefore be seen on the big screen to appreciate Nice, Antibes, Cannes, Lake Geneva, and other stunning locations.
Unrated. 116 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – B+
Acting – B+
Technical – A-
Overall – B+
