Things to Come
2016, Drama, 1h 41m
146 Reviews 5,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
A union to cherish between a writer-director and star working at peak power, Things to Come offers quietly profound observations on life, love, and the irrevocable passage of time. Read critic reviews
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Cast & Crew
Nathalie Chazeaux

Heinz
Fabien
Yvette
Chloé
Johann
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Critic Reviews for Things to Come
All Critics (146) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (145) | Rotten (1)
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As Denis Lenoir's camera recedes into a carefully bisected domestic composition, the boundaries between the past, the present, and the future shimmer and blur together in a way that suggests that nothing ever really slows down.
September 28, 2017 | Full Review… -
During the course of the film, Nathalie undergoes a series of crises and finds herself increasingly alone and alienated. Yet Hansen-Young, who is very good at this sort of thing, is no pessimist, and she concludes her film on a nod to "l'avenir."
April 28, 2017 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… -
It sounds like slight stuff but Hansen-Love is an expert in the observational -- the habits and customs that make up a life and the sense of dislocation that results when they're no longer possible.
April 26, 2017 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… -
Visually arresting, but never precious, it's filled with ideas that have relevance to actual life, ideas that are based on a moral conviction that a question well-posed is far more valuable than an easy answer.
January 25, 2017 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review… -
Following her triumph in Elle, French screen legend Isabelle Huppert scores another bullseye with this delicate tale of philosophy professor starting over
January 13, 2017 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review… -
OK, now Isabelle Huppert is just showing off.
January 5, 2017 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for Things to Come
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Mar 11, 2017Isabelle Huppert, an icon of French cinema, has to engage all of her artistic power to give meaning and complexity to a screenplay that is not too far from a self-help paperback made with cut-out figures. The film analyses superficially how to handle divorce, career threats and family issues by being cool, calm and collected in the presence of the others involved. You can let go in private, and howl. It is an ironic reflection of the problems faced by Huppert's character, who writes complex academic books which her publisher wants to dumb down into glossy, primary-coloured, mass-market items; meanwhile, her husband of three decades announces flatly one day that he is moving in with someone else. Other family members, young and old, also have textbook problems. The shallowness is a fault of construction and direction in the film, since there is nothing wrong with the acting talent. Huppert, with her characteristically surgical style, attacks each situation forcefully in turn. When it is time for her character to let go, you see the emotional abandonment and devastation. But the film is not committed to her themes and wants to do other things. Huppert is frequently cast in French promotional cinema and this is no exception - there are travelogues in Paris, Brittany and the Pyrenees, elegant clothing styles, charming cottages, regional produce, and quotations from French philosophy, which is itself a national product. The resolutions to the various personal problems are conventional; but then, perhaps it is advertising traditional family values, too. By all means be impressed by what you see here, as that is the intention; and it is worth it just to watch Huppert wrangle an inferior cinematic product into some consequence.. . Super Reviewer
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Sep 04, 2016There is a certain intuitive feel to Mia Hansen-Løve's films, as though she prefers to always follow her heart in order to find a direction for her characters and narrative - which, in turn, ends up being a bit irregular and repetitive, even if lifted by Huppert's excellent performance.Carlos M Super Reviewer
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