Things to Come Review | VIFF 2016

<p>As an actress&comma; Isabelle Huppert has blessed us with over 100 roles and just as many different types of characters&period; Some would say that Huppert has started to play the same bitter&comma; pessimistic character for the last ten years &lpar;and I can&&num;8217&semi;t really disagree&rpar; but she adds a humanity that many actresses like her couldn&&num;8217&semi;t give&period; In Mia Hansen-Løve&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Things to Come&comma; <&sol;em>Huppert plays a version of that character again&comma; but there&&num;8217&semi;s an exploration of the humanity and pessimism&period; Hansen-Løve isn&&num;8217&semi;t out to uncover some unseen mystery&comma; but she is looking to discover the psyche of a real woman whose real world has been turned upside down&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Huppert plays Nathalie&colon; mother of two grown children&semi; wife to a man who will soon leave her for a younger woman&semi; daughter to a woman &lpar;Edith Scob&rpar; who keeps calling firemen over under the guise of death&semi; and teacher to students caught in the middle of a labor strike&period; Huppert presents Nathalie as a woman content with a life not fully lived&period; Hansen-Løve frames a life of monotony and exhaustion&period; The days run long and the people run her down&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not until her husband informs her that he&&num;8217&semi;s leaving&comma; and her response is to laugh&comma; that we recognize <em>Things to Come <&sol;em>isn&&num;8217&semi;t headed exactly where we think it is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114605" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114605" style&equals;"width&colon; 928px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114605 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;25020818&sol;things&lowbar;to&lowbar;come&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Things to Come&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Les Films du Losange&rpar;" width&equals;"928" height&equals;"523" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114605" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Things to Come<&sol;em>&comma; Les Films du Losange&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In Hansen-Løve&&num;8217&semi;s filmography&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve been treated to some dreadfully overlong films in desperate need of an edit&period; These films can be incredibly artful and poetic&comma; but she doesn&&num;8217&semi;t know when enough is enough&period; At 102 minutes&comma; <em>Things to Come <&sol;em>still manages to have that issue&period; After the third scene of walking through grass and&sol;or mud&comma; the languid pace starts to show and you can feel how stretched for plot the film is&period; Modern French cinema seems to wander into exhausted territory &lpar;see her husband&comma; Olivier Assayas&&num;8217&semi;&comma; last couple films&rpar; but she manages to make it just interesting enough to last as long as it does&period; I guess having Huppert on your side helps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite these moments that don&&num;8217&semi;t seem to add anything to the plot&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s essential to the mood of the film&period; Mood and tone are key to having a film like <em>Things to Come <&sol;em>work&period; As Nathalie deals with her mother and her impending death&comma; their scenes are filmed to emphasize the intense patience Nathalie must have in order to be around her&period; Scob&&num;8217&semi;s performance is wonderfully comedic and sad in a prophetic fashion&period; As many times as people try&comma; they end up being like their parents more than they will care to admit&period; Nathalie is slowly realizing that she may become her&comma; but she&&num;8217&semi;s trying as hard as she can to be herself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114606" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114606" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114606 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;25020940&sol;things-to-come-2016-006-isabelle-huppert-edith-scob-aside-doorway-ORIGINAL&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Things to Come&comma; Films We Like&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"541" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114606" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Things to Come<&sol;em>&comma; Les Films du Losange&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s not like <em>Things to Come <&sol;em>is a bad movie&period; It just doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel essential in the Isabelle Huppert filmography and it lacks enough vitality and life to justify its existence&period; There are plenty of pretty moments in the French countryside and there are many scenes of Huppert rolling her eyes at the situation her character is in&period; Hansen-Løve loves to let her characters revel in the misery so they can make a choice late in the film that may or may not change them&period; By extending her films&comma; she allows them to breathe and live past the plot&period; On the other hand&comma; they end up just stagnating and falling off the narrative deep end&period; <em>Things to Come <&sol;em>is par for the course&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;