{"id":1179,"date":"2017-05-06T07:28:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T21:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsthings-to-come-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T19:45:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T09:45:55","slug":"things-to-come-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/things-to-come-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Things to Come – movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subtle is the key word in describing Things to Come<\/em>; a sometimes tortuously slow-moving slice-of-life drama.<\/p>\n

Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) teaches philosophy at a college in Paris. She\u2019s passionate about her work and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking to the next generation. Married with two grown up children, she devotes her spare time to the books she publishes as a sideline, to former students like Fabien (Roman Kolinka), that have become friends, and to a very needy mother (Edith Scob). One day Nathalie\u2019s husband Heinz (Andr\u00e9 Marcon) announces he is leaving her for another woman, one of a series of events that will upend Nathalie\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

\"\"Writer\/director Mia Hansen-L\u00f8ve in describing the principal character says she partly comes from the couple her parents formed \u2013 their intellectual bond and her mother\u2019s energy. \u201cAfterwards, there is the brutality of separation and the difficulty for many women over a certain age to escape a form of solitude, which I, like everybody else, have had occasion to observe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly Ms Hansen-L\u00f8ve is a deep thinker and reflects upon life\u2019s truth and the heartache that can bring. In fact, Things to Come<\/i> is a step into the life of an everyman, or, in this case, an every woman. Marriages break up, people lose their jobs and their parents die. You can reasonably argue that nothing outside the run of the mill happens in this movie and when the so-called dramatic high points come they are dealt with in a matter of fact style, without signposting or fanfare. Imagine following someone\u2019s fine, but rather mundane, life \u2013 there you have it.<\/p>\n

That takes nothing away from yet another stellar \u2013 in this case downbeat \u2013 performance by Huppert. Her credibility as the jilted wife is without question and this is really about how her character moves on with her life. The threads of philosophy \u2013 I call it philosophical claptrap \u2013 and politics are heavily woven throughout this tale and, quite frankly, I found that not only heavy going, but tiresome (the words \u2018dull\u2019 and \u2018boring\u2019 come to mind).<\/p>\n