Fabrice Andrivon's review: “Le Roman de Jim”, a magnificent film carried by excellent actors

Karim Leklou, parfait, comme les autres acteurs du film. DR – Pyramide Distribution

A dramatic comedy by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, to be seen this week at the Trianon in Marvejols.

We find in the Roman de Jim everything that makes the finesse of the writing, the sense of landscape (we go from their usual Pyrenees to the Jura), the psychological subtlety (four main characters superbly drawn, full of nuances), the precision in the direction of the actors, the positioning of the camera, etc. of the Larrieu brothers, who here venture into an unexpected domain for them: melodrama, a genre they embrace with total respect.

It is a story with a simple plot, which gives pride of place to tenderness, emotion, frustrations, resilience, and the difficult choices of a man faced with the love of a child who is not his own; a subject rarely covered in cinema and which finds a magnificent illustration here.

Show the province

We appreciate just as much the rough edges of the character played by the perfect Karim Leklou, the measure in the writing of the characters (Sara Giraudeau and Bertrand Belin are just as excellent in their complex roles) as the way in which the Larrieu family inscribes their characters in a landscape, a territory, a terroir, a social fabric. They know how to show the province like no one else without ever falling into folklore or the anecdotal.

If emotion catches us at the corner of one or two scenes of absolute quiet strength, we remain just as charmed by this dotted way of constructing the story (skillfully managed ellipses) and by this dramatic progression of a learned realism.

A magnificent film (taken from the novel by Pierric Bailly, already superb) which will undoubtedly bring a few tears to your eyes.