Touching educational film, Normal tells the story of a teenage girl’s not-so-simple life with her father, who is losing his independence, in a suburb of Paris. Benoît Poelvoorde is moving in the role of this widower who is losing his sight and fears losing custody of his daughter.
The fourth feature film by French filmmaker Olivier Babinet, charming, intimate and full of tenderness, is also tinged with the dark humor of its characters. Poelvoorde, who has often been known in a comic register, avoids the pitfall of caricature thanks to remarkable restraint.
Justine Lacroix, revealed by That’s love by Claire Burger (2018), is just as convincing in the role of Lucie, who escapes reality by inventing stories of which she is the heroine, in her diary.
The father and his daughter, who has become his caregiver, watch horror films together, as if it were a ritual. Their love is palpable, despite the inevitable tensions between a fifty-something father and his teenage daughter, in the midst of her romantic education.
Olivier Babinet has integrated elements of genre cinema into his film, which he co-wrote with Juliette Sales and Fabien Suarez. Lucie has nightmares that recall the cinema of David Lynch or even Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly.
We also find in Normal, set in a time that is not clearly defined, a vague kinship with the series Stranger Thingsnotably in a scene which takes place at the end-of-year show at Lucie’s college, to the sound of a progressive rock soundtrack by Jean-Benoît Dunckel (half of the group Air).
Normal does not avoid a few clichés and clumsiness: Lucie is considered “beautiful” when she finally takes off her glasses… It remains a charming film, which brings to the screen a duo of irresistible actors.
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Drama
Normal
Olivier Babinet
With Benoît Poelvoorde, Justine Lacroix, Joseph Rozé
1 h 27