My Mother's Castle (1990)

Had I realized that this was a sequel to My Father's Glory, I would have given higher priority to the latter. But since the two movies were released in the same year, I imagine that many viewers did not watch MFG first. Besides, MMC does a fine job of standing on its own; I never felt like I missed anything.

The Netflix summary is a tad misleading. While much of the plot does focus on how a vacationing family resorts to regular trespassing to save time, making it only a matter of time before trouble rears its ugly head, there are several matters to attend to before and after that. For example, preteen protagonist Marcel finds himself under uncomfortable pressure, not least from his teacher father, to participate in a big scholastic competition. He also falls for a pretty snob who gets him to do dumb things for her.

This points to a mild weakness in the film: the difficulty of summarizing it. The plot threads don't tie together very well, and they tend to get dropped or suspended abruptly for a long time. I realize it's based on the author's life, but maybe a little creative license to give at least a veneer of philosophical unity wouldn't hurt.

If there's one theme pervading the flick, it's that favorite of French cinema: class consciousness. Marcel's crush comes across as a total aristocrat. The yards his family illegally crosses are opulent and vast, perhaps signifying how the rich inadvertently create inconvenience for others. And Marcel's dad sure takes his own standing in society seriously.

I'm afraid the ending is rushed. We barely get to learn the origin of the title, and the narrator almost glosses over major tragic events in the years to come. I imagine that the book has a lot more to say about those parts. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't want to depart too much from the earlier lighthearted tone.

How lighthearted? Well, the realism kinda limits the effectiveness of over-the-top personalities, but we do get some nice lines in the narration to complement what we see (which is more beautiful than funny). And the resolution to the "main" problem touched upon in the summary is pretty tickling.

Maybe someday I'll check out MFG, which has the same rating on IMDb and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. But it'll be a while before I feel like doing so. I can only hope it's slightly less ordinary.