Josh here to celebrate a very particular mother. It’s 'Girls Gone Wild' month at The Film Experience, so it seems appropriate to visit one of the best performances of the last decade with Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long. She plays Juliette, a mother who everyone views as a someone who went “wild” once, committing a murder. Despite her cool exterior, everyone is waiting for her to break again at any point. This was writer/directors Philippe Claudel’s directorial debut after an esteemed writing career, and the novelistic approach to his characters pays off well; Juliette's still waters run deep...
These hidden depths justify telling the story on the screen. We can only watch Juliette, and learn to know her, at the same time as the other characters like her sister Lea (played brilliantly by Elsa Zylberstein). Kristin Scott Thomas's fine skills have never been better used than in this performance. She gives the audience just enough to keep them hooked, just a sliver of her emotional state. There’s a prickly harshness to Juliette that makes her past crime plausible but also mysterious. We still want to know why. There’s something simmering within her. Maybe the people around her are justified with their worries in her presence?
It’s hard to think of another actress who could have delivered this morally complex and brooding film so well, while avoiding pitfalls of melodrama that the plot could have easily fallen into. But this is Kristin's wheelhouse. Her best known roles like The English Patient, Nowhere Boy, Sarah’s Key and even Gosford Park, teeter on the edge of morose melodrama but mostly avoid it thanks to well-handled direction and the actress's skill.
The film is a fascinating look at whether a single action can define a person for a lifetime and the complexities of forgiveness. The “wild” may be in her past but it lingers over Juliette like a dark cloud. The film has been criticised for what some have argued as a “cop-out” ending, and it does unravel some of the most interesting existential questions that the film raises, but that doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the central performance.
Can we take this opportunity to make a plea for Kristin Scott Thomas to un-retire from films?
Please? What if we promise not to make her do any more films like Confession of a Shopaholic? Have you also loved Kristin so long?