A Christmas Tale
(Un conte de Noël, France, 2008)
Families getting together for the holidays is a genre with a long tradition. It is pretty much a given that the family has issues, and this one sure does. The mother is ill and needs a bone marrow transplant, so they are all getting tested to see if anyone is a possible donor. There is huge enmity between one brother and sister. The pleasures to be had in a movie like this are provided by the writer and the actors, and they are all quite good here, centering around Catherine Deneuve, who is aging as gracefully—and, hell, almost imperceptibly; she’s 64 here and could pass for 44—as anyone ever has on the silver screen.