Summer Hours (2008)

When you hear the term "family movie," you usually think of something like Old Yeller (a good family movie) or Little Giants (a terrible one). So I wouldn't want to mislead you by labeling Summer Hours, the newest film by Olivier Assayas, as such. It is for adults and not children, but at its core is everything that has to do with familial love and loss and tradition and guilt. Really, it's for people who used to be children and find themselves forgetting that fact.

It tells the story of a family who, like many families, has somewhat drifted apart. Helene (Edith Scob), who is celebrating her 75th birthday as the film opens, is mother to Frederic (Charles Berling), Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and Jeremie (Jeremie Renier). Frederic is the only one of them still living in France; Adrienne is a fashion designer in New York and Jeremie works in China. Helene discusses with Frederic what she wants done with her belongings when she passes away. She has a lot of them. Her uncle was a famous painter, and her home is filled with the type of items that belong in museums.

Helene dies in the following months and her children are left to split up the estate. Frederic wants to keep the house so they can all visit from time to time, but the siblings vote to sell everything. The remainder of the film deals with the sort of real things that happen to you when you grow up and leave home, when home becomes less important to you. The most powerful point of view comes from the family's housekeeper, who lived in the house until Helene's death.

Summer Hours is a very good film, although I can't say all of it is memorable. But it concerns real people with real problems and it realistically and lovingly deals with the universal idea of family. I would recommend it.

Note: 2009 U.S. release.