HAPPY END

When I look at the aged Jean-Louis Trintignant in “Happy End,” as was also the case in “Amour,” I am reminded of the time I sat down with him for an interview when he was so much younger and in the midst of his career so important to French cinema. He was then charming in his laid back sort of way, but exuding the force of is convictions. In “Happy End” he remains reserved, but still telegraphs authority in every sentence and every move. It is such a pleasure to watch him in his patriarchal role of Georges Laurent, a man in his eighties fed up with the world around him, struggling with the beginnings of memory loss and trying to figure out how to end his life, not an easy task.

The Laurent family, anchored in a lavish home in Calais, owns property and a construction accident has put the company on the spot. Georges’s daughter Anne, given a sterling performance by Isabelle Huppert (no surprise), is a tough cookie who manages the family’s real estate affairs. She has a brother, Thomas, played with sophisticated sleeze by Mathieu Kassovitz, who has remarried. Now his daughter Eve, played with pitiable sullenness by Fantine Harduin, is living with him and her stepmother. One of the most interesting sections of the film is a conversation between Georges and Eve. She reveals herself to him at his worldly prodding and he also confides in her. The age-youth confrontation tells you a lot about the states of mind of both. Later, Georges relies on Eve to help him implement a suicide plan.

The film has been written and directed with plenty of atmosphere, physical and personal, by the renowned Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, and the result is a portrait of a family messed up on various levels. This includes Anne’s unhappy, rebellious son Pierre (Franz Rogowski), who creates embarrassment at an elaborate luncheon by bringing in an entourage of immigrant workers of color to dramatize the bourgeois nature of his family.

“Happy End” is most interesting for various scenes that have impact, but as a whole, the film leaves one kind of stranded and hoping that more of it would come together with greater force. But those bits and pieces, sometimes very revealing, hold interest, and the acting is uniformly good. It is always especially engaging to watch icons like Trintignant and Huppert creating new characters. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Reviewed December 23, 2017.