Carine Tardieu has turned out a gently enigmatic film of the kind that used to be called a 'woman's picture'. The protagonist Lucille, known as Lulu is first seen in a pre-credit sequence fighting in a school playground and looking about ten or twelve whilst a short time later she is seen at the wheel of the family car with her parents as passengers. Half the time she is fairly plain with slightly crooked teeth and at others she is radiant with perfect teeth. Her mother, Karin Viard, is loaded with inertia and permanently depressed and has been so for most of Lulu's life so when Lulu stumbles on a set of photos and a home movie showing a radiant Viard in love - but not with her husband - Lulu decides to track down the lover and bring him back into her mother's life. As another person has noted there are several questions that could use answers but on the whole it's a charming little film very much in the French style.
Review of La tête de maman
