Marcus' contrast before and after meeting Thomas is thought-provoking. I thought Marcus was a child who didn't care about anything. But this is actually just numbness after a long boring life. In addition, although it is not easy to understand Marcus' mother, the way she treats Marcus is still debatable.

Marcus doesn't want to take medicine. Her response is threats and intimidation.

Thomas, on the other hand, asked Marcus to do what he had to do in an empathetic way. This contrast shows that children (especially adolescent children) should be treated in an equal and respectful way, not by coercion.

I hadn't accorded this film a second viewing since I acquired my DVD copy of it a year or more ago, but I took it down from the shelf tonight on a whim, and was immediately reminded of what a moving experience it had provided. I looked up the Wikipedia entry concerning Christophe Barratier's film and learned with some surprise about the production difficulties it had experienced because of the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. The credits are worth watching to the end, because the vignette that shows the young boy blowing out the birthday cake candles on his fifteenth birthday is heartwarming to say the least.