esrosedotblog

A SAFE PLACE

Today's film was Ursula Meier's

Home (2008)

with Isabelle Huppert. What a wonderful actress.

This is a story / allegory about the encroachment of civilization or its opposite in the form of pollution.I think. But put that aside.

There is family that has found a home isolated at the side of a four lane highway which, once constructed, was never finished and lost in bureaucratic never land.

The family leads, for them, an idyllic life. In a way they are misfits but they have each other. We become part of the family.

Then the highway logjam is broken. The road is opened. Slowly but surely the house by the side of the road becomes a prison.

These people are wonderful. A little fucked up. But they have found a way of life that works for them and then it does not.

Most of this is a comedy. A family comedy. Until it turns dark. But even then there are rays of light. A member leaves. Another wakes up out of the self induced torpor of the home. Eventually they have to leave. Liberated.

I really like this.

There is nothing to make one feel old as much as to see another age. Huppert has old woman's hands!

I have watched her all my movie life.

But she has aged so beautifully and soulfully that I am encouraged and uplifted by her power to stay the course. She works hard in this film. So do the others. The ensemble is quite awe inspiring. And the cars!

I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films