In the screenplay that Trier co-wrote with Eskil Vogt, a suburban New York family is wracked by a death. Gene Reed, fascinatingly played by Gabriel Byrne, has lost his wife, Isabelle, a renowned photographer who has covered wars and survived that carnage. However, she has died in a car accident near home. Or was it an accident? The justly celebrated French actress Isabelle Huppert plays the screen Isabelle, whose life we see in flashbacks. Huppert, ever the fine actress, puts a strong stamp on the character in the key scenes that help define her work and her relationships.

Gene has two sons, the older one, Jonah, a professor and new father with problems of his own, given a meaningful performance by Jesse Eisenberg. Devin Druid as the younger Conrad turns in what could be considered for a best supporting actor award as the sullen, introverted teen-ager, who has been shielded from the truth that his mother committed suicide. There is a total lack of communication with his father, as the surviving parent desperately attempts to break through the wall between them.

Druid is consistently excellent as we watch his growing pains and the path toward maturity. There is an amusing encounter with a schoolmate cheerleader, Melanie, whom Conrad feels inadequate to approach, but when they get talking at a party, we see the potential for connection in Conrad, and there is an impressive, sympathetic performance as well by Ruby Jerins as Melanie.

Conrad’s life is further complicated when he spies his father in an affectionate situation with Conrad’s teacher, Hannah, nicely played by Amy Ryan, with whom his dad has been having an affair. It is one more jolt with which Conrad must deal.

Adult relationships are further fleshed out by David Strathairn as Richard Wiessman, a journalist colleague of Isabelle’s, who has been in battle areas with her, and as her husband has suspected, was intimate with her, but only while they were away, Richard assures him, not while at home.

Thus adult problems are juxtaposed with coming of age problems, underlined by keeping the lid on the big family secret from Conrad about what really happened to his mother and anxiety about what his reaction will be when he inevitably learns the truth. That happens via the situation created when a newspaper account surfaces about Isabelle’s career and life.