While signing up for a 2.5 hour talky French family tale can sometimes be fraught with peril, the early reviews of Un Conte de Noël (tiff) gave me hope. It turns out the hope was well justified. I really liked this film, though I’m not sure I could put my finger on exactly why I liked it. It was, as I said, a very talky family drama, but the characters were entertaining while remaining real, and that was enough to make me care about what happened. It never felt quite as long as the running time, but I think they could cut a sideline love triangle story from the film to make it a little tighter. I didn’t feel like that storyline added anything to the film, and it could probably benefit from a bit of chopping. Still, a quintessentially festival film.

B

[tags]tiff, tiff08, un conte de noel[/tags]