Yann Laurent (brilliant performance by Guillaume Canet at his best) is working as a cook in a catering facility and aspires to get a better job as a chef in a restaurant. He meets Nadia, a young waitress, single mother of a 9.5 years old boy named Slimane. They fall in love; then during a day off near a lake, they encounter a closed mansion. With not much preparation, and lack of cash, they buy the place in the aim of opening their restaurant. What begins as a dram will turn out as a nightmare. After works being made to fix the place, authorities do not allow the opening for non compliance to regulations. The downward spiral begins, as they lied to the bank to get the loan (their initial cash was actually borrowed with high interest rates in many loans different companies). Nadia is offered by her boss to go work abroad in Canada. Shes asks Yann to keep her son for a supposedly short period of time, the time she sorts things out. But the situation for all characters seems to get worse and worse on the material level... Slimane's mother left, but he might have found a father... Overall, a film of quality, quite sad, but full of life. The harshness of times of crisis, when the poor people get desperate.
Review of A Better Life
