It is a little slow, have to say, but it's good. I don't understand the relationship between Antoine and his mother. She was so cold and they never talked about things that had happened to him. Every single caring mom would ask her son what is going on. Even when she found out that he witnessed the dog being shot, she didn't ask her son about it. Weird. Years later, he came back to the village and due to the circumstances he decided to stay there. His mother never asked about his sudden change of plans. Then, her partner revealed that he had known the whole truth, and probably, she had too, but she never spoke to her son about it. These are the things I didn't like, everything else was well made.

Summary

Based on a remarkable novel by Pierre Lemaitre (also the film's screenwriter), Three Days and a Life is a kind of moral essay (in the best sense) on the scope of a tragic incident (plus others of varying severity and characteristics), chance and the passage of time on the destiny of a twelve-year-old boy.

Review

Antoine, a 12-year-old boy who lives in a small town in the Belgian Ardennes, stars in a tragic event whose shadow will be projected over several years of his life.

On each of the days of the title this and two other very dissimilar events occur, but strangely they will operate together on the fate of the protagonist (whom the action takes up several years later) and the knowledge of the truth.

Based on a remarkable novel by Pierre Lemaitre (also the film's screenwriter), Three Days and a Life is a kind of moral essay (in the best sense) about the scope of a specific incident (plus the other two, actually), chance and the passage of time on the destiny of a person and their personal ties.

With a town and a forest (a scenario that would later proliferate in the French and Belgian police), Nicolas Boukhrief's film is more of a drama than a thriller. Or rather: the success and the disturbing thing about this story is the psychology of a protagonist organized in such a way that both territories can alternate but not overlap. There is an asordinate daily life in that battered community (in more ways than one) to which Antoine is reintegrated without problems. Rob's serene soundtrack helps remarkably define that mood.

The performances of Jeremy Senez as the child Antoine, Pablo Pauly as the adult Antoine and Sandrine Bonnaire as a mother capable of expressing a thousand emotions just with her expressions and her silences are highlighted.

An engaging movie about the ironies of life, especially the life of one Antoine who lives in a northern French village. Antoine is the character whose life of predicaments holds this story together, and he is well-played by two actors, Jeremy Senez as the younger version and Pablo Pauly as the grown-up one. We feel for Antoine and want to be on his side, and the actors manage to make him sympathetic. The scenes that took place during the historic winter storm of 1999 were brilliantly shot.