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Movies / On DVD / La Vie Promise
La Vie Promise

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La Vie Promise

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Reviews Counted:22

Fresh:10

Rotten:12

Average Rating:5.5/10

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 89 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

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... 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 see her biological mom, Sylvia is rudely dismissive. In an episode of bad timing, Laurence ends up stabbing a pimp in Sylvia's apartment. Estranged mother and daughter beat a hasty retreat heading north via train, bus and the kindness of strangers to reunite with the husband and 8-year-old son she skipped out on after the boy's birth landed her in a psychiatric hospital. Sylvia's heartbreaking and perhaps impossible goal is nothing short of trying to put all the things that have come apart in her life back together again. -- © Empire Pictures [More]

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Maud Forget, Fabienne Babe

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Maud Forget, Fabienne Babe, Andre Marcon

Director: Olivier Dahan

Director: Olivier Dahan
Studio: Empire Pictures

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Release:

Nov 23, 2004

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for La Vie Promise

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
03/04/04
AV Club
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
07/03/04
Boston Phoenix

[The film is] strongest when Huppert is plying her sordid trade, her face a cracking mask of emotional devastation.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
03/18/04
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Promises more than it can deliver.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
12/17/04
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Lacks 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.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
03/09/04
Frank Scheck
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter

Posh and overwrought tale of gorgeous scenery and mental illness.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
03/09/04
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/05/04
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Herald | comment Comment
07/03/04
Paul Sherman
Paul Sherman
Boston Herald

La Vie Promise is a road movie that holds little of the hope of its title despite its almost upbeat ending.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/21/04
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

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.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
04/15/04
Scott Foundas
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

Isabelle 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.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
03/04/04
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
06/05/04
Steve Davis
Steve Davis
Austin Chronicle

There is nothing [Huppert] can't do -- except save Promise from the valley of the shadow of bad French movie pretensions.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
07/02/04
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Isabelle 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.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
03/05/04
V.A. Musetto
V.A. Musetto
New York Post

An acting vehicle for the eternally sensual Isabelle Huppert.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
03/11/04
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The landscapes are lovely, and Huppert rises to her usual high form.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
05/21/04
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

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.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/16/04
Doris Toumarkine
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

A compelling portrait of various strings and levels of destitution.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/06/04
Greg Muskewitz
Greg Muskewitz
eFilmCritic.com

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.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
04/15/04
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Olivier Dahan's ("Crimson Rivers 2") awkwardly pretentious direction is overcome by the fabulous performances of his three stars

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/19/04
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews
 
 
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