Racconto di Natale

Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric help director Arnaud Desplechin bring a family drama situation to astonishing life.

Nothing can sound more familiar, or more banal, than the subject of " A Christmas Tale," yet nothing could be more energizing, more captivating, more pure pleasure on screen than the passionate, evocative experience that has resulted. It is Christmas weekend in the French provincial town of Roubaix, and three generations of a family are gathering under one roof to, yes, celebrate the holiday and endure each other. It's a family melodrama situation that has been done and overdone every which way but loose, but stifle those yawns: In the hands of writer-director Arnaud Desplechin this moribund conception comes to vivid and astonishing life. [...]

di Kenneth Turan, articolo completo (4891 caratteri spazi inclusi) su The Los Angeles Times 14 novembre 2008