A Kid (2016) User Reviews

A tender and moving film

[FrenchEddieFelson · 8/10 · 15 May 2019]

I admit having a strong appetite for the filmography of the French director Philippe Lioret. His films rhyme with simplicity, altruism, empathy, benevolence and sensitivity. Nowadays, this kind of observation is unfortunately rare. Moreover, Philippe Lioret has become a label of quality.

Following a call, a young Parisian dad learns of the death of his Quebec father when he did not know him, absolutely not, his mother having always hidden his identity. This trip on the other side of the Atlantic will be the opportunity to discover a step-family he did not know. And to know a little bit about himself.

My favorite scenes: Mathieu and Bettina together near the painting (there is a before and an after). Mathieu, his brothers and Pierre around the lake (a disappointment up to the expectations). The near-final scene in the car (it's particularly moving: it's not my style, but I almost had tears in my eyes)

As a synthesis, the movie is excellent. The casting, the dialogues and the directing are delightful.

On the lake, the deep forbidden lake .

[dbdumonteil · 8/10 · 29 September 2017]

Philippe Lioret has not made a bad movie yet ;I would go as far as to write that "Toutes Nos Envies" ,"Je Vais Bien Ne T'en Fais Pas" ,"L'Equipier" "Welcome" or "Tombés Du Ciel"have placed him firmly and definitively among French finest contemporary directors .With "Le Fils De Jean " ,he's simply become my favorite contemporary French director.

I still wonder why I like his movies so much : take this latest work:the story of the son/daughter who has never known his/her father and finds him again has been told,told,and TOLD.Besides ,Mathieu is divorced ,one of the clichés of the French cinema.

The first fifteen minutes perplexed me.But the further acquaintance says this:another topflight Lioret movie.Every time he transcends the often melodramatic subject ,every time he makes it absorbing and endearing.Far from the feel-good fashion which mars the present French scene , his characters are made of flesh and blood, and they are In SEARCH of something : his lost son for the father in " Je Vais Bien" ,a new land for the young immigrant of " Welcome",a reason to carry on her earthly ride for the terminally-ill lawyer in "Toutes Nos Envies" ....

"Le Fils De Jean" is perhaps his most complex work ,for it is a double search ; a search for a father he has never known and for two brothers he has never had for Mathieu;a mysterious search for Pierre,who ,little by little,considers the French illegal son as the son he has never had .Compared to this,the search of the dead body which might be at the bottom of a lake , is somewhat pathetic and the brothers Mathieu longs to love show themselves greedy and devoid of humanity.As for Pierre ,he is disillusioned,embittered , ill: in the first part,he is contemptuous, hostile ,as though he had a secret too hard to conceal.

"What's the name of the lake?" asks Mathieu ."None ;we just call him "the lake" "like me" says the boy ,of an unknown father".

The picture may puzzle the viewer -and the fact that Mathieu can estimate right away is a bit unlikely- but it inspires Lioret's disregard for money : the stethoscope who reportedly belonged to Mathieu's dad means more to him than a 80,000 dollars painting ;the same for the doctor who "has always tried not to make too much money";moreover ,it's this instrument which reveals the truth ,an admirable breathtaking sequence ,in every sense of the term.Note that when he talks to Pierre in the last sequences ,he uses "Tu" (second person singular) instead of the formal "Vous "(second person plural)

Pierre Deladonchamps is a promising newcomer (who finds here a much better part than in "L'Homme Du Lac " which suffered from a poor screenplay),who discovers that his search is not necessarily the one which concerns him ;as the film progresses ,it's Gabriel Arcand who becomes the true hero of the movie; like Kad Merad in "Je Vais Bien ", this sullen character becomes more and more human and wise ,even hating traditional medicine .The thespian's performance is a tour De force ,from a disagreeable grumbler to a distraught wreck with a gaunt face.

It's another damn great movie by a director who is going to be around for a long time.

what's with the phones?

[passetti · 7/10 · 6 October 2016]

There is some great acting in this movie after a novel by Jean-Paul Dubois.Especially by Gabriel Arcand, who plays Jean's old friend. But it took me a while to get over the initial irritation about all the phone scenes in the first 15 minutes. Everybody is constantly making phone calls. The movie even starts with a conversation over the phone. That's pretty poor cinema, and a false start for a movie that eventually unfolds it's true story. Then things heat up and get interesting. Don't go to this movie for the camera work though. You will be disappointed. It's shot in a nondescript documentary style, almost like a TV-series. Go to Le Fils de Jean for the acting and the secret that this movie has. I also like how all the characters were put down in the story. It all feels very 'naturel', like people you could know and hang out with yourself.

The son of nobody

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 21 December 2017]

"Le fils de Jean" or "A Kid" is a French film from 2016 that took almost until 2018 to finally hit German theaters. It runs for slightly over 1.5 hours and got its 2 male protagonists a solid deal of awards recognition. There is a really long list of writers attached to this project and one of them is Philippe Lioret, who is of course also the director here. You could definitely call this film a family drama. It is about one man's journey from Paris to Canada to find (out about) his father that he never met before in his life. And there he experiences a lot more than he had expected. Okay if we are honest, everybody with a trained eye for movies instantly realized the plot twist towards the end 10 minutes into this movie. The camera shots and dialogue writing gave this one away oh so quickly. And as almost the entire first half is all about that, I personally found the second half better. It was clear that the man was nothing like his two greedy and drunk "brothers" or their womanizer dad, even if the latter may have had his good sides too as we find out when they say he immediately would have gotten the cancerous old man to a hospital. The cancer story line did feel a bit rushed admittedly and only there for the sake of it getting some easy emotions out of the audience. Same about the violent ex-boyfriend part. The mother/grandmother's depiction of knowing what was going on, but not being able to talk about it to her husband was something I quite liked. Definitely among the much better aspects of the film. Overall thanks to the improvement and the insight into the family with some solid writing about and acting by the members, this film quickly reached terrain where I would recommend checking it out with no hesitation. Moments of greatness you maybe won't find too many if at all, but the strong ensemble performance here makes this one certainly worth checking out in my opinion. I liked the starting romance that eventually was not needed though in order for this to become a quality movie. It's tough to filter out one area, aspect or performance that I liked the most, but there are also no major weaknesses in here, almost no weaknesses at all I'd even say. A well-rounded effort this is, especially in the second half. Not necessarily a film that is worth more seeing on the big screen than on the small screen at your home, but you really cannot do anything wrong with this one. Oh yeah, also make sure you have French subtitles if you don't want to see a dubbed version, unless you speak the language. Enough now. This one wants to be seen.

Not for the rough and ready

[wim-vorster · 9/10 · 23 March 2019]

With sadness and distress I've read (some) of the IMDb reviews on Le Fils de Jean. However, it shouldn't be surprising as most people are prone to blockbusters and sound bytes.

Although I wouldn't exactly describe this as the art of slow cinema, it nevertheless moves along with a gentle pace, portraying gentle emotions and the odd outburst or two. Primarily it's a film about relationships between parents and children, and vice versa and between siblings.

Very seldomly do French films hit the viewer over the head with melodramatic confrontations and every realisation and experience rushing along like car chases. Most of the time they allow the viewer to discover the characters and have rare looks into their inner beings. Although this is not particular or peculiar to French films, a general sense of melancholy and romance are ever subtly present in French works.

One reviewer in particular slates the acting. I can only presume that said person is not acquainted with the works of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Theo Angelopoulos and most works from Europe. Even thrillers such as The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg) are not shoved down viewers' throats with grandstanding.

The great French film masters (Robert Bresson, Agnes Varda et al) also, like thorough painters, take time to uncover their characters, their stories and their situations.

I won't compare Le Fils de Jean (directed by Philipe Lioret, also responsible for the wonderful Welcome starring Vincent Lindon) with any of the great masters' films, but it's a gem. Mathieu, who visits Canada to find out more about his (presumed dead) father Jean and is taken to the lake where he supposedly drowned, finds himself in a different world. Albeit all French speaking, even certain expressions and customs are foreign to him (and vice versa again).

This is not operatic, melodramatic, grand scale acting. This is gently coming to grips with the soul and marrow of every character. This is real. Sincere. Supported by excellent photography, the wonderful script is brought to life by director and actors and the film is strewn with small, delicate delights. And. a big AND, not everything is explained as in Hollywood films. The viewer can come to own conclusions. Mine were certainly being moved, being transported and being touched.

This is worth a few revisits.

At least it keeps me waiting to see what happens

[Andres-Camara · 6/10 · 15 September 2017]

It is a film that gives you little by little. It grows as it advances. The problem with this type of cinema is that they only care about telling a story with some good actors, who are all, but always forget all the other sections, the direction, photography, also help tell a story.

You go watching the movie, you think it's going to go one way and go for another and surprise you. I do not like the typical characters that you use but at least you believe it.

The actors are all very well. What happens is that the protagonist, is too cold. I do not know why they're so fond of him. He is a person who would be treated with education, but who neither transmits affection nor empathy nor why they give it. It is very cold.

He has a photograph that does not bring anything. As if they did not use bulbs.

The management, only tries to tell a story, yes, it is what you have to do, but you have tools that you do not even bother to use, as if you do not care and I think they are very important. He does not know how to put the camera, only general plans and close-ups.

It's a movie that entertains me, but I do not know how long it will be in my memory

Small Drama of a Man Finding his Father

[mancinibrown · 9/10 · 3 February 2019]

A Kid tells the story of Mathieu, a Frenchmen who grew up in Paris, the son of a single mother. One day he receives a phone call that the father he never knew has died in Montreal, and that the funeral will be in a couple days. He decides to travel to Montreal to discover the brothers he just learned he had.

Upon his arrival in Montreal, Mathieu is picked up by Pierre, a friend of the deceased, Jean. He asks why he wants to do all this, to impose on a family that just lost their father and husband. In the end Mathieu decides to be quiet on who he is when he meets the brothers.

The acting by the main actors does a good job of bringing you into the thinking of these characters. How one would react in such a situation is hard to say, but the interactions here are believable. All twists and turns in the plot also seem logical and help bring the viewer further and deeper into Mathieu's world and his discovery of his family on the other side of the Atlantic.

calm

[q-72188 · 8/10 · 10 April 2020]

Plain not surprised story, is the implicit calm, is a gentle person but not indifferent

Oh my...

[jpgougouh · 1/10 · 4 November 2017]

This movie made me really angry. As I watched these pitiful actors, except for Gabriel Arcand and the two brothers, I almost break my teeth. The French is reacting like a tourist, but in the worst manner a tourist can be, he is always watching and learning, the dialogues are extremely boring and useless. This movie is one of the most less good movie I have ever seen. The actors from Quebec are talking like they would talk to a alien from another planet when they talk to the extremely useless and boring French guy, It's like they don't come from Quebec when you hear them talk, they looks like they are ashamed of the accent. The last 10 minutes are nice. But again, the French buy a toy for his son at the airport ! What a mess... 90% of the movie is worthless.

English: "A Kid"

[westsideschl · 5/10 · 6 December 2018]

A different take on a now grown adult seeking the dad & thus the family he didn't know because of a one night stand decades ago. The man a French Canadian w/a Parisian female. A small twist. Logical, but no DNA searching or comparisons. A bit incomplete ending. This seeking adult has a marital problem of his own which is unresolved if not made more complicated by a not healthy attachment to another female. The scene of two adults w/children on their laps in the back seat of a car is a serious & potentially deadly error in the script - dumb. Lots of smoking by a lot of people. A cheap way to create a visual that also has it's consequences - also dumb. Outcome w/painting misplaced; should be w/female. Not a well resolved ending.