Even though the movie was inspired by a true story ,it was fictionalized.
The first thing to bear in mind is that this story should be considered the depicting of a woman's OWN choice;we are not asked to argue or to judge;and that,although it was labeled " comedy" it's not a barrel of laughs;it is precisely the kind of movie which you cannot leave unharmed .As the precedent user wrote in his/her insightful comment,the subject concerns us all:what will we do when the time comes?
After years and years of supporting roles ,where Marthe Villalonga often played the over possessive mother ,she is at last given the lifetime part ;her performance is thoroughly admirable :a restrained portrayal ,full of dignity ,never falling into the trap of self-pity and sentiment;although ten years younger than her character,she manages to make us feel the burden of life when your body aches,you wet your panties and your legs are giving way under you .Matching her every step of the way is Sandrine Bonnaire 's distraught daughter who,little by little,comprehends her mother's decision to end a life "which will end bedridden in a gloomy hospital",even though she does not approve of it: who could anyway?
There are flaws indeed: Bonnaire's organic- food- husband hams it up all along the way ,and the same almost (but not completely) goes for her "Bim Boom surf" son;the flashbacks (and the movies from the past) are a bit of an overkill (the heroine dives in the nude in the last picture);symbolism is often ponderous :in Bonnaire's nightmare , the little girl,lost in the cemetery finds her mom's grave;granny has not been out of the hospital all of one minute when she runs into a woman about to give birth to a child -she was a midwife,a women's lib activist ,she championed all the causes going .We can also find that Bonnaire's colleague,at school,is a caricature who " got rid of her own mom in a house for retired people and wants Diane to share her guilty feeling : too facile an effect!
Fortunately all that remains is often deeply moving : the 92nd birthday celebration and granny's speech ;the black neighbor 's wisdom and her lovely African ballad which will return in the final cast and credits;the song Madeleine ,her unfortunate room mate and the nurse's aid break into (Gilbert Becaud's "Et Maintenant" =what now my love?) makes sense and it makes a change from the eternal English or American songs every modern French director includes .The trip to the place where an old flame of Madeleine lives his twilight years : this short sequence reminds me of Ingmar Bergman's "wild strawberries ".A crepuscular scene shows the two women watching the sunset .
In this would be comedy,comic relieves are few and far between :the distraught brother taking his dog to the vet cause he's eaten my mother's pills ; the stream of physicians ,coming to "cure " the old lady ,but actually providing her with the medicine she needs for...the movie flirts with black humor,for a short while.
I do not think it's a movie for the whole family as IMDb page suggests ;I say it again,this film depicts man's universal fate,and a way to die on your feet,to quote the heroine.
Two movies had already depicted the story of two women ,a young one ("Und Morgen Mittag Bin Ich Tot")and an older one ("Quelques Heures De Printemps" ) ;but they were terminally-ill persons who chose assisted suicide in Switzerland .Madeleine ,on her part ,could be still living years of sufferings and decrepitude :she decided she would not.Even if we do not approve of her,we have got to respect HER choice ,which might be OURS ,some day.
