Ssshhhhh … you may come,
but you must keep quiet about who you are.
This deceit (among
others) is at the heart of the Distrib Films production of director Philippe
Lioret’s A Kid (aka: Le fils de
Jean), which will be making its domestic DVD debut on Oct. 23 courtesy of
Icarus Films.
Matthieu Capelier, a thirty-something living in Paris, gets
a mysterious phone call that his father has died. Now this comes as quite the surprise to
Matthieu, played by Pierre Deladonchamps — nominated for a César Awards in the
Best Actor category for his performance here (this was his second Best Actor
nomination … he won in 2013 for Stranger by the Lake) — who was told
by his deceased mother that he was the result of a “one night stand” and she
went to her grave without revealing anything more than that.
The voice on the other
end of the line is a fellow by the name of Pierre (Gabriel Arcand), who lives
in Montreal, was Matthieu’s father’s best friend … and surprise, surprise, you
have two half-brothers.
That is a lot to take in,
especially for a man who was married, fathered a son and is now divorced —
although he remains on his good terms with his ex-wife, Carine (Romane Portail). He’s basically adrift, a part-time father, in
a job that offers him nothing and now this!
You have a choice at this
point, thank Pierre for the unwanted news and hang up the phone (after all, mom
said it was a one-night stand), or get on a plane and fly to Montreal and meet
your brothers. Matthieu chooses the
latter, but his reception at the airport by Pierre is not all that warm and
fuzzy … it’s more like “why are you here … and when are you leaving?”
Here’s where Lioret’s film gets tricky. Matthieu’s father drowned in a lake some fifty miles north of Montreal (filmed in and around Saint-Zénon, Quebec) and his body has yet to be recovered and the sons, Samuel (Patrick Hivon) and Benjamin (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), have decided to continue the search, with Pierre’s help. Pierre gives Matthieu a choice, come, but remain quiet about your identity, or go home.
He becomes an observer to
the relationship that his brothers have, with Pierre’s wife (Marie-Thérèse
Fortin) and daughter (Catherine de Léan) filling in the gaps for Matthieu (and
us) about his father. Oh what a tangled
web we weave as secrets, deceptions and fatherhood all combine for a very
interesting trip for a bewildered Frenchman from Paris to a far off place
called Montreal.
A Kid is presented in French with English subtitles.
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