|
Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN
Just laid off, the 60-year-old taciturn shipyard worker takes his severance pay and, out of the blue, buys a wreck of a boat in hopes of turning it into a dockside eatery. Graying and so slightly built he looks like he’ll be blown into the Mediterranean at any minute, he wilts into the background when he’s with his immediate family, dominated by strong-willed and formidably extroverted women. He lives in a cheap waterfront hotel, but he’s hardly alone. He has formed a second family with his landlady and her daughter. Twenty years old and already world-weary, Rym (Hafsia Herzi) looks to Slimane as a father, but is only too aware that she and her mother will never be accepted by Slimane’s other family. Native born, Rym conducts the negotiations for the necessary permits, more at ease cutting through the bureaucratic red tape than Slimane, though neither she nor Slimane flinch at an overt racist jab when a city official points out that in France, kitchens have to be hygienic. Director Abdellatif Kechiche’s previous film, Games of Love and Chance, also dealt with North Africans’ place in France, though set in the Parisian suburbs not long before the 2005 riots. Before you scoff at yet another benevolent look at a family straddling two cultures, Kechiche subtly subverts the genre. It’s a loving look, but a knowing one. The glue that keeps the family together may undermine it as well. One early clue: Slimane’s eldest daughter berates her potty training infant daughter, over and over again calling her a little pig. Both her father and husband, ill at ease, don’t dare interfere, even though her shaming methods aren’t working. And the film opens with Slimane’s eldest son, Majid, grabbing some afternoon delight at work with a French blond—we later learn he’s married and habitually stays out all night, neglecting his Russian-born wife, Julia (Alice Houri), and their baby boy. His afterhours activities are the worst kept secret in the family. One sister confronts her brother, but the rest let his behavior slide. Judging from its first half, The Secret of the Grain is the least likely suspense drama. In many scenes Kechiche hits the same notes over and over again; the film is perhaps 20 minutes too long. But after the film’s first third, the film’s many strands gel. Any resistance to its semi-vérité approach gives way when the entire family pitches in for a test run of Slimane’s restaurant, including the ex-wife making her beloved couscous with mullet. Daughter-in-law Julia's second-class status within the household is noticeably reinforced—she peels potatoes at a table by herself while the other women huddle together gossiping in Arabic. (Wait for one amazing crying jag when she breaks down.) Before you know it, what started out as a quasi-documentary becomes a narrative-driven movie with the family’s reputation on the line—city and bank officials plus the deputy mayor will be judging Slimane. One point
of reference is Rachel Getting Married, another sprawling and
rambling family drama. But Jonathan Demme forces confrontations, letting
it all out at a moment’s notice, taking for granted that the viewer will
be drawn into the family tension. (With its constantly whirling handheld
camera, Rachel feels stuck in the late ’90s by way of Denmark.)
Kechiche aims for a similar sense of realism, but more gracefully. He
takes full advantage of the overly generous running time—mishap by
mishap, everyone earns our sympathy. Like a five-course meal, the film
unfolds steadily, saving the best for last.
Kent Turner
|
If you were to take the cook’s word
for it, the secret ingredient behind her coveted couscous is love.
Matriarch Souad (