A middle-aged lady whose daughter disappeared while still a child, has gone on to become a volunteer for a charity devoted to finding missing children. During a fair, she meets with a young woman who suffers from the opposite problem : once she was found wandering the Belgian coast, as an unidentified and unclaimed child. Could this handsome and clever young woman actually be the missing Hortense ?
"Hortense" struck me as an interesting but not wholly successful movie. It started out in a promising manner and gained both speed and tension, before running into problems. By the end a lot of its promise has disappeared under a barnacle-like cover of thriller clichés and melodramatic flourishes. Still, it did contain an engrossing premise plus plot which, in more capable hands, might have yielded a thriller/drama for the ages. I'm not in the habit of saying this, but this might represent a fine opportunity for a remake.
During its best moments, "Hortense" is quite moving, evoking the never-ending suffering of parents who have lost offspring to a suspicious disappearance. Viewers familiar with adoption or foster cases will also recognize the various tensions which can arrive when an adult searches for, or discovers, one or more of his biological parents. In the movie, for instance, the boyfriend of the young woman grows jealous and resentful upon realizing that his beloved might have gained a meaningful connection with yet another individual ; it feels quite lifelike.
"Hortense" struck me as an interesting but not wholly successful movie. It started out in a promising manner and gained both speed and tension, before running into problems. By the end a lot of its promise has disappeared under a barnacle-like cover of thriller clichés and melodramatic flourishes. Still, it did contain an engrossing premise plus plot which, in more capable hands, might have yielded a thriller/drama for the ages. I'm not in the habit of saying this, but this might represent a fine opportunity for a remake.
During its best moments, "Hortense" is quite moving, evoking the never-ending suffering of parents who have lost offspring to a suspicious disappearance. Viewers familiar with adoption or foster cases will also recognize the various tensions which can arrive when an adult searches for, or discovers, one or more of his biological parents. In the movie, for instance, the boyfriend of the young woman grows jealous and resentful upon realizing that his beloved might have gained a meaningful connection with yet another individual ; it feels quite lifelike.
