Home-Film Review

We see a family having fun playing street hockey outside. They seem to enjoy each other's company. We see what they were playing hockey on is a 4 lane highway that's not being used anymore that's about 50 feet from their house. They have a chair out there, some other things that are strung about the road. It seems that almost everybody takes a bath together after their playing (remember this is a french film). They're a strong family unit. The eldest daughter lays out in the sun all day while the father goes to work and the two youngest kids go to school. The mother (Isabelle Huppert) is a stay at home mom doing what seems to be a lot of laundry sometimes asking everybody does anybody have "whites" that are dirty because she's doing them today. The boy (Kacey Mottet Klein) swears when he was playing with his friends at their playhouse down the road that he saw construction vehicles. Of course nobody believes him since years ago the crews came along and put tar down on the road and nothing became of it at that time. But then on the radio they hear that yes the road is being reopened and soon enough a faceless crew goes by them working on the road. The rest of the film deals with the choices and situations the family must make while cars going 70 miles an hour are rushing by them almost day and night. It is then that we see there are cracks in the family dynamic and we see the film go into a darker and darker place. Olivier Gourmet as the father turns in a great performance trying to make the right decisions for his family and trying to keep it together himself. I must say for me they are an odd family but you can see a lot of love for each other. The more liberal nudity in the family unit is a little odd to me but there is nothing but innocence in these scenes. I could have done without them but oh well. It didn't ruin the movie for me but this is still an odd film that i reservedly recommend.