The French title for this film, Non Ma Fille, Tu N'ira Pas Danser, means "No, my daughter, you will not go dancing." This wonderful phrase refers to a sequence in the film when the main character Lena is talking to her son about a story he's reading. In it, a young Breton woman who loves to dance has a competition where she will marry the man who can dance with her all night. Every man she picks to dance with her dies because she's is so talented. After burning through several men, she finally begins to dance with my mysterious guy, who turns out to be the devil. He ends up killing her because he is so much more talented at dancing than she is.
Much of this poetry is lost in the English title for the film, Making Plans for Lena (a reference to the XTC New Wave song from the early '80s Making Plans for Nigel), but the gist is still there. Lena is a middle-aged woman who has two kids and leaves her husband after she discovers him cheating on her. She quits her job and her life begins to fall apart from the pressure of the children and her family who try to tell her what to do at all times. Her family is very close and to them, she is a grown child who needs pushing and prodding at all times. They try to get her a new job, they try to set her up with new boyfriends, they try to get her to reunite with her husband, they try to give her advice about how to raise her kids.
Clearly the subtext here is that she is dancing around in circles to such a degree that she is risking her life (and the lives of her dependent kids). Lena is a flake, to be sure, but she's also a good person who is really trying to do the right thing all the time. She's not abusive to her kids, but she does put them in bad situations. Her family is probably too overbearing for her, and possibly if she was to get more space she would figure things out herself - it's just the pressure of her life that throws her off tilt.
Throughout the film, the acting is wonderful, but particularly Chiara Mastroianni (daughter or Marcello and Catherine Deneuve) as Lena. She does a beautiful job with the rather difficult role. She has clearly been a more put-together person in the past, but is fraying at the edges right now. She's capricious and youthful, but also serious when it comes to mothering.
Director and co-writer Christophe Honore does a nice job of creating a very naturalistic world, even inside the few fantasy or story sequences. The colors are rich and vibrant and the apartments and houses have a nice internal geography and are filled with real crap that you'd find anywhere.
One thing I did not like was that the story frequently jumped around from one place to another without much explanation, leaving us a bit confused for the first moments of the next scene. This seemingly arbitrary continuity got rather frustrating as the story moved along and I had some trouble following it at times.
I really wanted more from this film. I really liked what I got in general, but it felt rather whimsical and not all that well formed. Not a heck of a lot happens in it. Basically we spend a few months with a woman while her life is falling apart. I'm not sure it really ends anywhere in particular - it just ends. I really love the symbolism and presentation of the fable of the woman dancing to death, but that doesn't really tie in to Lena's story on a deeper level. It's just a beautiful moment in a bigger, rambling tale.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
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