There is nothing [Huppert] can't do -- except save Promise from the valley of the shadow of bad French movie pretensions.
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07/02/04
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La Vie Promise
45
%
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:10
Rotten:12
Average Rating:5.5/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 5, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: Sylvia (Huppert) is a prostitute in Nice, with a self-protective talent for blocking out huge chunks of her past. When her 14-year-old daughter, Laurence (Maud Forget), skips out on foster care to... [More]
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Maud Forget, Fabienne Babe
Director: Olivier Dahan
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Reviews for La Vie Promise
Top CriticLa Vie Promise is a road movie that holds little of the hope of its title despite its almost upbeat ending.
06/21/04
Olivier Dahan's ("Crimson Rivers 2") awkwardly pretentious direction is overcome by the fabulous performances of his three stars
06/19/04
The Promised Life is not particularly original either in conception or execution, but it still manages to be interesting and stylish enough to get the better of its cliches.
04/16/04
[The film is] strongest when Huppert is plying her sordid trade, her face a cracking mask of emotional devastation.
03/18/04
Top CriticThe landscapes are lovely, and Huppert rises to her usual high form.
05/21/04
Even Huppert can only do so much to sustain a phony weepie about the impromptu parent-child road trip that occurs after Sylvia's estranged teenage daughter 'accidentally' kills one of Mom's brutal pimps.
04/15/04
This is a rare road picture that leaves us knowing less about our traveling companions than we did when the journey started; Dahan and screenwriter Agnes Fustier-Dahan reduce their characters to pasteboard symbols, colored by unexplained quirks.
03/05/04
Isabelle Huppert's stunning performance is among the finest of her career.
11/18/03
Posh and overwrought tale of gorgeous scenery and mental illness.
03/09/04
Top CriticIsabelle Huppert, an actress incapable of making a mawkish gesture, fights tooth and nail to keep this soft-boiled story of an embittered prostitute from turning to mush.
03/04/04
Top CriticLike an old Hollywood star vehicle, this French import does its job, providing its lead actress with compelling emotional circumstances and its audience with arresting contexts through which to perceive her.
04/23/04
Top CriticIsabelle Huppert is such a wonderful actress, it's a shame that her latest film to reach our shores, La Vie Promise, directed by Olivier Dahan, isn't better.
03/05/04
Top CriticA compelling portrait of various strings and levels of destitution.
03/06/04
An acting vehicle for the eternally sensual Isabelle Huppert.
03/11/04
Top CriticLacks much in the way of compelling narrative or credible characterizations, but it once again reaffirms Huppert's place in the pantheon of French film actors.
03/09/04
Top CriticPromises more than it can deliver.
12/17/04
La Vie Promise offers a fairly engaging story and great scenery. Huppert manages to chew up the latter as she adds heat to the former.
03/16/04
It all does come down to Huppert with this film, to the moods, emotional states and character moments she can create, to the delicate magic she can work on screen.
04/15/04
Top CriticHuppert is never less than fascinating.
03/05/04
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