The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

First Day of the Rest of Your Life. Photo / Supplied

Rating: * * *

Verdict: Funny and often moving portrait of a family

Small family dramas are the flavour of the month: The Cake Eaters and the awesome Summer Hours are joined in release by this French charmer which recalls the well-handled Quebecois movie C.R.A.Z.Y. of a few years back, not least because it has one of the same actors.

Bezancon's film takes the well-worn approach of telling his story from the viewpoint of each of the five main characters, but he adds a twist: each episode is separated from the one before by an interval of years (the timespan is 1988-2000).

So we meet Albert (Marmai), the eldest son, whose decision to leave home has driven his mother Marie-Jeanne (the excellent Breitman) into empty-nest panic; five years later, his sister Fleur (Francois) is making some bad decisions in her quest to lose her virginity; three years on, the wastrel Raphael (Grondin), whose major aspiration in life is to be an air-guitar champion, is being taught the mysteries of wine by his grandfather.

The final two sequences explore what happens to Marie-Jeanne and the paterfamilias Robert (Gamblin), and the less said about them here, the better. But it's enough to say that the film's well-judged comic episodes - an excellent one involving oral sex lingers in the memory - are mixed with moments of great poignancy and a genuinely moving ending.

Bezancon creates a different tone for each sequence with a change in what he calls the "cinematographic signature": the transitions seem seamless even though they are signalled with chapter headings but the director mixes up handheld camera with Steadicam, deep with shallow focus and changes of editing pace to create different moods for each singular take on a shared experience. He also raids the sound archives for some terrific material (Bowie, Lou Reed, Joplin's still-dazzling version of Summertime) to add to the mood. It's not an epoch-maker by any means but an engaging, heartfelt, well-acted portrait of family life.

Cast: Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Deborah Francois, Marc-Andre Grondin, Pio Marmai
Director: Remi Bezancon
Running time: 114 Mins
Rating: M (Sex Scenes, Offensive Language And Drug Use) In French With English Subtitles