Coming Home (2012) User Reviews

Promising Storyline Wasted in Poor and Messy Screenplay, Edition and Characters Development

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 8 October 2017]

The girl Gaëlle Faroult is kidnapped at school when she is about eight by Vincent Maillard (Reda Kateb) that imprisons her at the basement of his isolated house but provides everything she needs. Along the years, Gaëlle (Agathe Bonitzer) unsuccessfully tries to escape. But when she is seventeen, Vincent surprisingly let her go. Now Gaëlle has problems to adapt to her family and the outside world.

"À moi seule" is one of those films with a promising storyline with great potential, telling the story of a girl that is kidnapped at school when she is about eight and the difficulties of adaptation to her family when she is finally released by the kidnapper when she is a seventeen year-old teenager. The storyline of the recent and awarded "Room" (2015) has many elements from "À moi seule", but with an excellent screenplay. Unfortunately the promising storyline is wasted in poor and messy screenplay, edition and characters development. The first question about "À moi seule" is why the lonely Vincent kidnapped Gaëlle? His motives are never clear. Did he intend to raise a child expecting the connection of "Stockholm Syndrome" when she reaches adulthood? If yes, it does not make any sense the whole story. The second point is who is Vincent and Gaëlle's parents? The screenplay shows points of their relationship in a shallow way only. Last but not the least, a non-linear screenplay shall be very well-written to let the viewer understand events from the past that are affecting the character in the present. However the flashbacks are confused and the viewer does not immediately understand that it is a flashback scene. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "De Volta Para Casa" ("Back Home")

"À moi seule", although it was selected in Berlin Golden Bear Competition, is a film which has a mediocre script, weakly created characters and kind of confusing edit.

[sonersezer · 6/10 · 5 August 2012]

"À moi seule", it's a movie about a girl, Gaelle, captured by a blue-collar worker, Vincent. After passing long years in a cave, designed and equipped in her own way, and after trying many times to escape, one day Vincent let her go, without saying anything. As we understand later, Vincent was expecting a "Stockholm Syndrome" from Gaelle and he thinks when she look at the last time to the home and Vincent, she would be return with her own ascent to the slavery. Well, I should say, it does not look like a real slavery but more likely being in a prison. However, the film focuses on the attempt of adaptation into life, with flashbacks to the old imprisoned days . How could she be able to once again get used to her real life? Everyone feels guilty and a bit anxious about this thing happen. And Gaelle realize that will be not easy, but she have to be strong and the only chance she has, it's herself.

While I try to summarize the story, maybe you could understand that the scenario is not quite original. I've seen similar and better films especially in French cinema, like Les Amants Crminelles of François Ozon. So what can be more valuable than the script, is either characters or the director's ability to turn it into a good movie. For the characters, although we have few of them, we can feel only Gaelle, who has a real character. Vincent or Gaelle's mother are just like someone who serve to story but without any identity. For director's ability, I should say the editing of the movie is kind of failure. He mixed up the story so we go forward and backward into the time, but still the movie has some problems of the scenes where action goes so quickly and you do not know how to relate them with the previous or next one. For instance, the scene with Gaelle when she first comes to Vincent's cave, one can think that she is another girl, which makes Vincent even more "psycho".

So, for my understanding, "À moi seule", although it was selected in Berlin Golden Bear Competition, is a film which has a mediocre script, weakly created characters and kind of confusing edit.

Who edited this? What was the point when in 10 minutes we learned she managed to escape???

[DarkSpotOn · 1/10 · 19 November 2023]

It's official, most people from France can not write a good movie. After suffering throught Them, i thought it can get worse then that. This movie was terrible dye to whoever edited this, made a movie that could of been sort of interesting to a degree unwatchable.

We are constantly being jumped with present time and past time. 10 minutes into the movie, we LEARN THAT SHE MANAGED TO ESCAPE. AND THEN WE ARE FED WITH THE PAST AND WATCHING THE CURRENT TIME AT THE SAME TIME. WHOEVER EDITED THIS, HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED A MOVIE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE??? DO YOU KNOW WHAT A GOOD MOVIE IS??? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE REST 60+ MINUTES IF WE KNEW SHE ESCAPED???

This movie was based on the case of Natascha Kampusch. Half of this movie is padding, and what this woman went throught was shown tiny bits, like it does not matter. (it does im just saying in the movie). I loved 3096 Days, it's based on the same subject matter, and everything there is TOP NOTCH. This movie is tame compared to it in every aspect.

There's nothing shocking here, there's nothing interesting, there isn't even good editing. Even the music choice for this was garbage. Most of the music does not fit the scenes it's just weird modern music. I thought that Inside, Frontiers and High Tension are bad, but all the movies i just mentioned are gold compared to this, and Them. Them and Coming Home have the honor of being the two worst movies i have ever seen from France.