A Life Begins/ Une Vie Qiu Commence (Michel Monty, 2010): Canada

Reviewed by Ulrika Bjorck at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011

This is a touching film and a very sad story. At first after seeing it I couldn’t really decide if I liked it or not, but it is definitely a film I won’t forget that easily. The director and writer Michel Monty did this story based on his own life and experiences. “A Life Begins”, or to give you the original title of it, “Une vie qui commence”, is a well done film with great actors and a good story.

At the first sight this is the perfect model of how a happy family should be and look like. But sometimes things aren’t always what it seems to be, even though you have the perfect house, you bought the cool car and you have the perfect wife and kids. After Louise loses her doctor husband and their kids Étienne and Michel lost their beloved father in a drug overdose everything changes over a day in their perfect life. The loss of the father hits 12 year old Étienne really hard and he can’t accept that his father is gone. Instead of trying to move on he tries to hang on tight to everything that reminds him of his father. One day he finds his father’s jacket, he wears it all day and eventually he finds a small box in the pocket of it, containing his drugs. Étienne starts taking these drugs in strive after being just like his father, he is getting obsessed with the idea to say the least.

One thing that struck me right away after seeing this film is that in the beginning you get the impression of it being almost a feel good movie. I think that what probably made me think that was because of the bright and happy colors and the “perfect” family that was presented on screen (maybe I should have been suspicious just by that). Pretty soon it came to my attention that it was the right opposite, and that made me really confused to say the least. I sat during the whole film waiting for the happy ending to come. I think that what Michel Monty is trying to capture is the big contrasts, and to make you as a viewer confused. He wants you to put you in a good mood with bright colors and happy music but at the same time revealing a really depressing and sad story. That is probably also one of the reasons why I felt so undecided in my opinion of the movie.

When the movie ended the writer and director Michel Monty stayed in the theatre for a Q&A which was a really good experience. After that I got a whole new view of the story, because this was the point where I realized that the story was about his very own life. He was very open about it all and we got to know that he has been planning for this film pretty much his whole life. Michel is the youngest brother in the story, and he witnessed how his brother’s life just went downwards for years and years after the loss of their father.

I absolutely think that the film is worth seeing, but I don’t think I would want to see it again to be honest, it was just not my favorite kind of film, but with that said I’m still glad I saw it, because it was a good film.

A Life Begins