X
- 2016
- PG-13
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 42 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 42 m
Summary What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build falls apart all at once? Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy teacher with a seemingly settled existence, juggling a rich life of the mind with the day-to-day demands of career and family—including frequent visits to her drama queen mother (Édith Scob). But beginning with t...
Directed By: Mia Hansen-Løve
Written By: Mia Hansen-Løve
- 2016
- PG-13
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 42 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 42 m
Things to Come
7.0
Where to Watch
Summary What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build falls apart all at once? Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy teacher with a seemingly settled existence, juggling a rich life of the mind with the day-to-day demands of career and family—including frequent visits to her drama queen mother (Édith Scob). But beginning with t...
Directed By: Mia Hansen-Løve
Written By: Mia Hansen-Løve
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
88
100% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
88
100% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Huppert is extraordinary — she reveals everything even when you think she’s showing nothing — and she’s the perfect actress, right now, for Hansen-Løve’s fine-grained perceptiveness.
Huppert is such a persistently and prolifically rigorous performer that she risks being taken for granted in some of her vehicles, but this is major, many-shaded work even by her lofty standards.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 User Ratings
7.0
73% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
24% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
4% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 55 User Ratings
7.0
73% Positive
40 Ratings
40 Ratings
24% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
4% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
A very subtle film with a very subtle performance by Isabelle Huppert. Its basically a coming of age tale about a woman in her sixties and its directed gracefully by Mia Hansen-Love. The cinematography of the film is warm and beautiful. I loved it.
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As we watch this woman lose her family, her status, and maybe even some part of her pride, we sense both the horror and the intoxication of freedom.
In the hands of director Mia Hansen-Love and the heart-stopping Huppert, Things to Come (L’Avenir) examines the inevitable losses and possible liberation of late middle age with impressive sensitivity and restraint.
The filmmaker has put two familiar pieces of music to such glorious, full-throated use toward the end that I can’t resist mentioning them: Donovan’s “Deep Peace,” and “Unchained Melody” done in close harmony by the Fleetwoods. For Nathalie in the uncertainty of the here and now, peace and harmony are great ideas too.
Things to Come is a smart, earnest undertaking: an exploration of the insecurity that can hit any of us, at any age, when we start to question the life we’ve built.
If Things To Come doesn’t completely fulfill Hansen-Løve’s career mission of elevating minor incidents to major themes, it still rings with her clarity and personality. She conveys in single sentences what less confident filmmakers might expound on in a monologue, and makes small gestures more poignant by tossing them off casually or making an unexpected cut.
‘L’Avenir’ (The Future) is something of a rarity as today’s movies go and all the better for it. Had I known it was written and directed by Mia Hanson-Love I might have decided to stay well away - after being disappointed by the 2011 ‘Goodbye First Love’. But, with this surprisingly mature work, she has taken her own family experiences and crafted a story so filled with thoughtful observations the viewer feels more like a voyeur - within the unfolding lives of these very real characters. I kept expecting the now common clichés to start unfolding i.e.; lonely deserted wife seeks solace in a carnal relationship - but surprisingly and pleasingly, all superficial TV and cinema modernisms are avoided in preference to intelligent character study. Being raised in a home with two philosophy teachers as parents, Mia Hansson-Love uses in-depth philosophy to examine her central theme/s. Nathalie, her main character, illustrates strong points by telling her family, acquaintances, and students, that in her youth she had been surrounded by Stalinists but, she read Solzhenitsyn (who exposed many vague notions about the ‘idealism’ of the USSR!). Without labouring her points, she invites her students and anarchist friends to think for themselves, even lifting a veil against the trendy leanings of Post Modernism. She freely quotes the philosophies of Rousseau and Gunther Anders (might any of this had an influence on the avoidance of sensationalised clichés within the intelligence level of Love’s script...I wonder?) With succinct statements Nathalie invites them to recognise the positive points of right and wrong with an open mind. This is a woman grounded in pure realism - even though, beyond her control, some elements that have constituted her world till now are beginning to alter.
If I may have questioned anything it could have been the resolve with which she accepts some of her situations – she says to her husband and the father of her children; “I thought you would love me forever” - then simply, without even questioning his leaving her, goes along with it. This could be the reaction of someone who was expecting the situation, but to one who thought all was well....I’m not so sure. Nathalie is superbly played by Isabelle Huppert and supported by a well-chosen cast who, take us on a slice-of-life journey that’s reminiscent of some of Bergman’s better works – examining the intimate challenges that life brings into most all our paths - without trivializing or cheapening the experience. The careful selection & use of music is evident (as with earlier works) adding to the soundly grounded profundity of this enlightening cinematic achievement. The fluid imagery of prolific cinematographer Denis Lenoir (Still Alice ‘14) is not always suited to subtitled topics but one imagines the budget and subject would have dictated this style – so, some may find viewing and reading could need a little concentration at times. Still, the rewards are well worth any efforts necessary to stay with this strong and satisfying work.
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A smartly written, exceedingly well-acted character study of a successful and respected philosophy teacher who seems to have it all but loses everything in one incident after another. For many, this experience would be devastating, but, as capably depicted here, such losses also illustrate the liberation afforded by them. With yet another outstanding performance by Isabelle Huppert (this is her year it seems), the film provides much to ponder in terms of what we value and what we believe is important.
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It is a French movie about a woman in her sixties, a philosophy teacher, who suddenly realizes that she is free from all usual responsibilities: kids grew up and left home, her husband found a younger woman and left as well, elderly and sick mother passed away. What to do with all that freedom? You spent all your life building a family, and now it's all gone...
Isabelle Huppert stars here as main protagonist Nathalie. She is a good actress and she proved it again. But emotionally that movie did not not move me (pan intended).
I would call this film remarkably unremarkable.
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Production Company
CG Cinéma,
Detailfilm,
Arte France Cinéma,
Rhône-Alpes Cinéma,
Canal+,
Cofinova 12,
Cinémage 10,
Soficinéma 11 Développement,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
ARTE,
Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA),
Société des Producteurs de Cinéma et de Télévision (Procirep)
Release Date Dec 2, 2016
Duration 1 h 42 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 3 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
