Delpy mashes family drama with sci-fi thriller in a film hamstrung by its earnest absurdity
However sincerely intended it is, there is something jarringly misjudged and misconceived (and not especially well acted) in this peculiar Europuddingy film from writer-director Julie Delpy. It starts out as a wrenchingly painful human drama. But having clumsily invoked the most intimate of family tragedies, it lurches into a preposterous melodrama from a Huxley-esque dystopia.
The setting is the present or near-future (some tech innovations tip you off) and Delpy plays Isabelle, a French scientist living in
Berlin with her six-year-old daughter Zoe (Sophia Ally), whose custody arrangements she is negotiating with her angry
British ex-husband James (Richard Armitage). He’s an abusive and controlling figure who never supported her career and accused her of neglecting their daughter.