A Christmas Tale

2008 [FRENCH]

Action / Comedy / Drama

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 66% · 131 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 66% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 7919 7.9K

christmas comedy christmas party family secrets dysfunctional family alcoholism banishment

Plot summary

When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.

Director

Arnaud Desplechin Photo
Arnaud Desplechin

Top cast

Catherine Deneuve Photo
Catherine Deneuve as Junon Vuillard
Françoise Bertin Photo
Françoise Bertin as Rosaimée Vuillard - Abel's mother's girlfriend
Melvil Poupaud Photo
Melvil Poupaud as Ivan Vuillard - - Abel and Junon's youngest child
Mathieu Amalric Photo
Mathieu Amalric as Henri Vuillard - Abel and Junon's middle child
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.37 GB
1280*548
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
2 hr 32 min
Seeds 3
2.81 GB
1904*816
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
2 hr 32 min
Seeds 13

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by emeiserloh 8 / 10

Another brilliant French film

This one, however, is not for everyone. Most people will probably not only have trouble with its length, but its style, as well. Both as wild as it is imaginative, this film is like a post-modern jazz score, mixing elements from a variety of cinematic styles that are jarring (at times), but always interesting to behold. And as long as the film is, it always keeps moving and changing before our very eyes. What makes its odd stylistic combinations work is the compelling depths of its explorations into family and the bonds the unite, or divide us. Like and The Royal Tennenbaums, with a nouvelle vague twist, the film is not only full of odd combinations of image and music, but seems to jump from one film to another from scene to scene, as if each character or emotional quality (from light comedy to serious drama) were each receiving its own rendering. At times, the characters turn and speak directly to the camera. The filmmaker also intercedes by providing chapter headings and keyhole views, but, somehow, what could have become a cacophony of chaos, turns into a wonderment of cinema that any real cinephile will be amazed to behold and want to experience again....
Reviewed by evanston_dad 7 / 10

No Compelling Reason to Spend Time with This Particular Family

An overly long and incredibly too talky dysfunctional family drama about a clan reuniting for one Christmas to see which if any family members will have bone marrow that's compatible with that of the matriarch, played by a chilly Catherine Deneuve. She's dying of a rare kind of cancer, and the spectre of that eventuality plus the proximity of brothers and sisters who haven't seen each other for a while and have scores to settle puts everyone in a reflective mood. Unfortunately for us, they stay in that mood for nearly three hours, and they talk and talk and talk endlessly about it.There's far too much plot, some of it quite banal, some of it very interesting. The film is well executed and acted, but it's also distant and cold. I never felt vested in anything that happened to these people, and I greeted the ending with the curiosity of one who has spent a lot of time with something and simply wants to finish it rather than with any real concern for what the ending would be."A Christmas Tale" falls into the trap of too many family dysfunction dramas: We all have our own families to deal with in real life, so if we're going to spend 2-3 hours listening to the petty whining of someone else's, it better damn well be worth our time.Grade: B
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